JEDDAH, 7 January 2004 — More than 500 physicians from all over the Kingdom and around the world met here yesterday for the 15th Scientific Session of the Saudi Heart Association. The three-day conference held in cooperation with King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center in Jeddah is an annual event which brings together leading heart specialists.
“Rapid developments are being made these days in medicine, particularly in cardiovascular medicine and in the diagnosis and treatment of heart disease. The conference aims to keep us up to date,” said Professor Mansour Al-Nozha, of King Saud University in Riyadh, who is president of the association.
“This year, we have ten sessions and the program covers many areas of cardiovascular medicine including heart disease in adults, and children and cardiac surgery. We also will have three workshops to discuss ultrasound in adults and in children and the third on ECG for irregular heartbeats,” he said to Arab News.
There has been an increase in the number of heart problems in the Saudi population. “We did a national study and found that the prevalence of coronary heart disease is 5.5 percent — that is 5.5 of the adult Saudi population above the age of 30 have coronary heart disease,” said Dr. Al-Nozha. He attributed the increase in heart disease, especially heart attacks and angina, to the increase in risk factors. The risk factors include high blood pressure, high cholesterol and the prevalence of diabetes, obesity and smoking among Saudis.
“Medical care for cardiac patients is very, very good in Saudi Arabia. Most centers are up to the standards of Europe and the US,” said Dr. Al-Nozha. “There are one or two regions that need an expansion of facilities but medivac (transport by air) covers this deficiency.”
At the same time, he emphasized the need for taking steps to prevent the development of heart disease and raising awareness among the people of risk factors.
“We are not doing enough in the area of prevention. We have to do more,” he said.
