80 Percent Indians don't Use Efficient Drugs

By siliconindia   |   Tuesday, 30 August 2011, 00:29 IST   |    6 Comments
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80 Percent Indians don't Use Efficient Drugs
Bangalore: Have you ever thought of Drugs usage range of Indians? Here is the survey that tells that 80 percent of Indians don't receive efficient drugs reports Kounteya Sinha for TNN. Drug groups like Angiotensin Converting Enzyme(ACE) inhibitors or Angiotensin Receptor Blockers (ARBs) and statins scientists have found that four out of five patients from low income countries like India , Bangladesh and Pakistan are not receiving the essential drugs. They have done a detailed study to quantify use of effective low-cost drug treatments for heart disease and stroke anti platelet drugs like aspirin and Beta blockers and they presented a report at the European Society of Cardiology congress in Paris and later published the report in the British journal Lancet. The study involved 1,53,996 adults from 17 countries in which around 5,650 participants reported prior coronary heart disease and 2,292 stroke. Around 29,000 Indians were part of the study. It found that the use of preventive drugs was very low. Anti-platelet drugs like aspirin were taken by only a quarter of individuals with cardiovascular disease, beta blockers by 17.4 percent, ACE inhibitors or ARBs 19.5 percent and statins 14.6 percent. In India, among the participants who was suffering from coronary heart disease (683), only 11.6 percent were taking anti-platelet drugs, 11.9 percent were taking beta blockers, 6.4 percent were in ACE inhibitors, 21 percent were on blood pressure lowering drugs and less than 5 percent on statins Among those who had suffered a stroke (316), only 3.8 percent were on anti-platelet drugs, 7 percent on beta blockers, less than 2 percent on ACE inhibitors, 11 percent on BP lowering drugs and less than 1 percent on statins. Drug use was highest in high-income countries, where about two-thirds of patients were taking anti-platelet drugs. Its quite shocking to know that an average Indian suffering from heart attack or stroke is seven times less likely to receive the inexpensive aspirin - the most commonly used anti-platelet drug and even 20 times less likely to receive statins than an average Canadian. This study effectively reveals that low standard living of Indians and ignorance of an average Indian even about the inexpensive aspirin so then the question haunts is our health service system is not stable even to provide drugs for severe causes like heart attack or stroke.

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