Vietnam has seen an alarming increase in cases of hypertension and heart disease following its rapid socio-economic development in recent decades, local media reported on Monday.
About 25 percent of the Vietnamese population aged more than 25 years suffered from hypertension and heart disease, the Vietnam News daily reported, quoting President of the Vietnam National Heart Association Pham Gia Khai.
According to the association, the number of people suffering from cardiopathy and hypertension sharply increased from 11.5 percent of the population in 1992 to 24.1 percent in 2008, and the figure has kept rising.
Vietnam has made rapid progress in cardiovascular research and surgery since the 1960s, with the first case of cardiovascular intervention and therapeutics reported in 1997. So far, 65,000 cases were handled by the National Cardiology Hospital.
Vietnam is now a member of the ASEAN Federation of Cardiology and American College of Cardiology.
The heart association forecast that about 20 percent of Vietnam 's population would may suffer from cardiovascular diseases and hypertension by 2017 if current trends remain.
Experts attributed the increase to rampant feasts and overconsumption of fatty food and alcoholic drinks. In addition, there is a shortage of understanding of basic cardiovascular health and hypertension in communities, deficient funding for successful preventive programs and a lack of up-to-date facilities for, as well as poor communications on, heart disease and prevention.