RIYADH, 21 June — In a move to check huge economic losses inflicted by stroke on the Saudi health sector and to combat this killer disease at national level, a ‘Saudi Advisory Group against Stroke’ (SAGAS) has been set up.
This was disclosed by Dr. Waleed Ahmed Khoja, a senior consultant neurologist at Riyadh Armed Forces Hospital who recently led the Saudi delegation to a London conference which discussed global strategies to fight this disease.
The event held at the Royal College of Physicians, was sponsored by the US-based Merck & Co, known in the Middle East as Merck Sharp & Dohme Co.
The conference which attracted politicians and healthcare decision makers from across the world including the Middle East, heard from a panel of international experts that patients with hypertension (the main cause of stroke) could receive a treatment that has been shown to reduce the relative risk of stroke by 25 percent more than the standard blood pressure medicine. This is based on a recent ground-breaking research called the famous LIFE study published in prestigious medical journals recently.
“The findings of this new study on stroke and hypertension, will signal a new era in how we treat patients with high blood pressure,” said Dr. Khoja, adding that the number of patients suffering from hypertension has been growing in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states. In the United States the number of patients suffering from hypertension is estimated to be more than 50 million. In Europe, this number exceeds 65 million.
Referring to the LIFE study, Dr. Khoja and Waleed Hatem of Merck Sharp & Dohme company said that this study has dramatically demonstrated that physicians have a new and highly-effective weapon to combat this debilitating disease and improve patients’ quality of life. The LIFE is one of the largest completed clinical studies of patients with hypertension. The study, conducted in seven countries, compared losartan with a proven standard blood pressure medicine (beta blockers atenol). They said the study involving 9,193 patients will help check strokes significantly. The direct and indirect costs caused by stroke in the US alone exceed $51 billion annually and this figure will be substantial in the case of Saudi Arabia too, they said.
In reply to a question, Dr. Khoja said that there is no immediate plan to set up patients’ society in Saudi Arabia to generate awareness about hypertension and stroke.
The Saudi expert said the stroke has become the most frequent complication, more frequent than heart attacks, among treated European hypertension patients and also among patients in the Middle East. “We therefore need a more effective way of preventing this condition, which has both human and economic costs”, said Dr. Khoja, adding that the LIFE study has established the fact that the discovery of losartan is a boon for hypertension patients the world over.