Heart attacks and sudden deaths have tripled in recent years and the pandemic Covid has its responsibilities. Most of the cases involve young people between 16 and 28 years old.
It is necessary to restore the progress made by emergency medicine in the last 20 years, erased by the prolonged state of health emergency. The alarm was raised from NAPLES by the experts who spoke this morning at the first day of work of the XXIV National Congress of the GIEC, the Vascular Emergency Intervention Group, dedicated to informing young people about the prevention of cardiac arrhythmias and in which students from some schools in the area took part.
The national president of the congress is Dr. Maurizio Santomauro, from the Department of Cardiovascular Emergencies of the Federico II University Hospital Trust: “The topics we are addressing today are specifically aimed at young people for cardiovascular prevention. We felt it was essential to offer students information, scientifically controlled by the emergency cardiology society, aimed at preventing cardiac arrhythmias, which can often be triggered by incorrect use of heart-stimulating substances, such as excessive doses of caffeine or even illicit use of substances harmful to the heart.
The first step we want to take with the kids today is to start thinking about taking care of the heart while they are young to preserve it in later years. After the pandemic - continued Santomauro during his speech - this has become peremptory, because the number of heart attacks with Covid has increased.
Covid has ruined 20 years of cardiovascular prevention in Italy, we need to return to the same levels as in 2019, both by reducing cases of heart attack and sudden death. The cases have tripled. This is alarming data, if we consider that most of the sudden deaths occurred among young people between 16 and 28 years old.
This means that prevention has decreased, especially in sports. We need to return to school and sports, especially amateur sports, to instill in young people cardiovascular prevention and the need for periodic checks. Especially after the age of 35, even in the absence of symptoms" 800 doctors from all over the world, 400 of whom will be present, will take turns in the three-day conference (closes May 14) in the Aula Magna of the Faculty of Biotechnology Sciences of Federico II.
On the first day, award plaques were presented to the Ukrainian consul, Maksim Kovalenko, to the teacher of an elementary school in Scampia who saved a student from a heart attack, and to a Neapolitan pharmacist who saved the life of a passerby thanks to an emergency maneuver.
Among the authorities who spoke was the Health Councilor of the Municipality of NAPLES, Vincenzo Santagada, who announced the resolution “NAPLES cardioprotected city” which provides for the installation of 15 totems with defibrillators in some neighborhoods. “In European cities, people capable of performing first aid maneuvers and using a defibrillator – explains Maurizio Santomauro – are 10%. In NAPLES, 3%.
In fact, we want to underline the importance of first aid education with the use of the semi-automatic defibrillator". Also at the speakers' table were the president of the School of Medicine and Surgery of Federico II, Maria Triassi and the police commissioner of NAPLES, Alessandro Giuliano. Among the topics of the conference, also the importance of training in the use of defibrillators the police officers who were recently given the Taser that could cause involuntary arrhythmic cardiac deaths
Article published on May 12, 2022 - 19:45 pm
