The Philippine Heart Association (PHA) said on Thursday that cases of heart diseases in the Philippines increased by 28 percent in 2021, which may have been caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Tumaas ng 28 percent. Nakakagulat at nakakatakot. Halos 30 percent ‘yan. Ito ay nangyari during the pandemic, so ibig sabihin may epekto talaga ang pandemic sa cardiovascular disease (Heart ailments increased by 28 percent .
This is surprising and frightening. That’s almost 30 percent. This happened during the pandemic, so it means that thepandemic affects cardiovascular disease.),” PHA president Dr. Gilbert Vilela said during a Laging Handa” briefing.
Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data show that ischaemic heart diseases were the leading cause of death from January to October 2021 with 110,332 cases or 18.3 percent of the total deaths in the country.
This was a 28-percent increase from the 86,164 deaths or 16.9 percent of the total deaths in the country during the same period in 2020, the PSA added.
The second and third causes of deaths in the country were cerebrovascular diseases and deaths due to COVID-19, respectively.
He said that the cause of this case growth may be due to the fear of people with heart conditions to go to the hospitals as they may get infected with the coronavirus disease, enduring their pain while not being able to take medicines.
He added that anxiety and mental stress can also lead to a heart disease as they “create a massive systemic inflammation.”
“‘Yung mga taong may sakit sa puso, pwedeng maitulak sa heart attack. ‘Yun namang mga taong walang sakit sa puso, pwedeng magkasakit sa puso. Bukod doon” (People with heart disease can have a heart attack. Those people who don’t have heart disease, can get heart disease. Aside from that). “It creates a behavior that is unfriendly to a person’s cardiovascular health,” Vilela also said.
