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Viral Infections Can Lead to Heart Failure

DUBAI - Though rare, viral infections can led to heart failure especially in young people, experts said at the Heart Failure Dubai 2010 conference here.

Internationally, cases of viral infections leading to heart failure are reported widely, but doctors say that a number of such cases are also being seen locally.

“Young people are prone to heart failure due to a viral attack if they have a genetic disposition to it,” explained Dr Fahad Baslaib, Head of Cardiology Department at Rashid Hospital.

Citing the case of a 22 year old girl who died at the hospital recently, Dr Baslaib said that the virus had been contracted when the girl was 13 years of age. “It’s like any other virus. You don’t know how you have caught it and don’t know how to prevent catching it,” he explained. “The same virus is can be harmless for some and fatal for others.”

Though unable to provide exact numbers of such cases seen in Dubai recently, the doctor said that a heart registry was being planned at the Dubai Heart Centre located in Dubai Hospital.

In 2009, Rashid Hospital alone saw 1,600 heart-related cases.

Besides viral infections, a rise in the number of aging population is also a reason behind the increasing heart failure cases in the country.

“People above the age of 50 are susceptible to heart failure,” said Dr Nooshin Bazargani, head of the organizing committee of the conference.

With better medical intervention, life expectancy has increased, she said. “But so has the burden on healthcare,” added Dr Bazargani.

Repeated admissions of the elderly population with multiple problems is putting a huge burden on both the private and public hospitals in a country where the average heart age is 45 years.

Regionally, heart attacks are occurring 10 years earlier than elsewhere in the world, she added.

“That’s why we stress on lifestyle management that can contain problems such as blood pressure, diabetes, obesity which are considered risk factors for cardiovascular disease,” she added.

asmaalizain@khaleejtimes.com