Asia-Pacific Health Experts Call for Urgent Action to Prevent a Stroke Crisis

And the first place to start would be in their back yard, contacting president of the WSO, Australian Professor Stephen Davis to see what specific
steps they are taking, not the pablum produced by the synergium.
http://www.pharmiweb.com/pressreleases/pressrel.asp?ROW_ID=66060#.UI2FjIZPGxM
Asia-Pacific remains at risk of a devastating stroke crisis, according to regional health experts launching two new Reports published today, on World Stroke Day, by Action for Stroke Prevention (ASP). Building on ASP’s 2011 Report, How Can We Avoid a Stroke Crisis in the Asia-Pacific Region?, the launch of today’s supplementary Reports focus on specific action steps that can be taken by healthcare decisions makers and professional and patient organisations, to reduce the catastrophic personal and economic impact of AF-related stroke.
Alarmingly, the Reports highlight the fact that the first time many people will find out they have AF is when they have a stroke. Furthermore, approximately 70% of patients with known AF who had a stroke caused by a blood clot were not receiving anticoagulant therapy to prevent AF-related stroke at the time it occurred.v,vi,vii With stroke placing a huge financial burden on countries in the Asia-Pacific region, more needs to be done to reduce the number of these serious, costly, and yet preventable strokes.
Reducing a Preventable Burden: Effecting Change
“We need to ensure that AF is recognised as a serious risk factor for stroke in national prevention plans and that concrete actions are defined in these plans that support earlier diagnosis and improved awareness, education and prevention,” said world-renowned Cardiology expert, John Camm, Professor of Clinical Cardiology at St George’s University, London, UK. “It is our hope that national governments will address this as they plan how to meet the United Nations’ commitment to reduce non-communicable diseases by 25% by the year 2025.”
Recommendations made by the Reports include:

• improving public awareness and understanding of AF and the risk of AF-related stroke
• implementing effective practice standards and targets for healthcare professionals; for example, targets for AF screening
• creating national strategies for the early diagnosis of AF
• developing strategies to support adherence to clinical guidelines and the provision of equal and adequate administration of therapy for people with AF 
• Everyone of these sound wonderful but do nothing.

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