CAIRO - Watching her father lying critically ill after a stroke in the intensive care unit of a governmental hospital, made her fearful of facing the same fate that had hit her grandmother around four decades ago, when she, too, had had a stroke. “At the time, the visiting doctor didn't prescribe any medication or order her transfer to a hospital, as an indication to the family of her inevitable death. That was the stage, in which they could do nothing but pray to God to lessen her pain,” said primary school teacher Nehad Sherif to The Egyptian Gazette, remembering the experience of her grandmother when Nehad was ten years old. The world of medicine has greatly developed since then and patients suffering from high blood pressure, which has suddenly risen, and led to a blood clot or damage in the brain, may be treated if immediately hospitalised and injected with medication to disperse the clot. That is why Sherif with her two brothers rushed to take their father to the nearest hospital to be treated for a sudden state of paralysis of half of his body that seems to have resulted from a sudden rise in blood pressure. However, heavy days are passing for the siblings without any significant improvement noticed in the condition of the poor father, except for a few moments of wakefulness he experiences, that give them hope of possible recovery when the medication makes its effect felt. “Apparently, there are shortcomings in the medical performance in this hospital in not having the requested medication for dealing with the clot on the spot. It took them a day to request us to buy the anticoagulant drug from any pharmacy outside the hospital,” Sherif, a teacher in a primary school said, trying to find a clue to the delay in her father's recovery. Sherif and many other citizens might be shocked on hearing a warning recently given at the Fifth International Congress of the Egyptian Cerebro-Cardio Vascular Association (ECCVA). It warned that the drug needed to disperse a blood clot is not available in around 99 per cent of the governmental hospitals in Egypt. Professor of neurology and chairman of the conference Dr Nabil Kitchener alerted that 15 per cent of people with clots in the brain suffer an epileptic seizure that could lead to death or permanent disability. Quoted by Al-Ahram daily Arabic newspaper, Dr Kitchener advised of the major deficiency in most governmental hospitals of medication necessary for dispersing blood clots, including an injection that should be given to the patient within three to four hours of the start of the symptoms. These include a characteristic headache, loss of balance, a kind of paralysis in half the body and face (hemiplegia), a sudden loss of vision in one or both eyes and inability to speak. It is known that high blood pressure is a risk factor for many heart and brain diseases and blood clotting. In this regard, professor of neurology at the Cairo University's Faculty of Medicine, Dr Saher Hashim affirmed the critical necessity of speed in protecting the neurological system and brain from the influence of the blood clot. This should be effected within a period of no more than four hours. Professor of neurology at Al-Azhar university Magdi Dahab, said that hypertension is a marker for blood clots and many other disorders, such as rheumatoid, kidney diseases and diabetes. “It is also proved to have a relation with dementia, causing cognitive and memory deterioration,” said Khalid Sobhy, neurologist at Al-Azhar University's faculty of medicine, while attending the conference. . Blood pressure problems are responsible for many diseases and deaths, being connected to obesity and diabetes, which are widespread in Egypt. The situation is exacerbated by the absence of reliable data on the estimated number of people suffering hypertension, obesity or diabetes, making it difficult for the medical sector to combat these chronic conditions, which represents a risk factor for innumerable other diseases. Here emerges the necessity of establishing a database in every governmental and private hospital, registering all cases admitted and the causes of their hospitalisation. This is a requisite basic step to having correct statistics on the different diseases affecting the Egyptians, prior to devising plans to upgrade the medical sector and health care service.
