CORONARY artery disease, commonly known as "heart attack", is listed as the number one cause of deaths of residents in Cagayan de Oro City, the City Health Office (CHO) reported.
In its Awareness on Lifestyle-Related Diseases Summit last Tuesday, the CHO ranked coronary heart disease as the top leading cause of deaths of residents here, followed by pneumonia, cancer, cerebrovascular disease or stroke, hypertensive or high blood pressure, diabetes, vehicular accidents, tuberculosis, and liver diseases.
The CHO recorded a 17-18 high mortality rate every week of the heart disease in 2017, compared to only 5 deaths recorded every week in the last 5 years, from 2011 to 2016.
Majority of the persons who have died of the disease are residing in the poblacion area of Cagayan de Oro, the report showed.
City Health Officer Dr. Fe Bongcas reminded the residents to maintain a healthy lifestyle, pointing out that most of these diseases are linked to four common but preventable risk factors such as smoking, unhealthy diet, lack of physical activity and alcohol use.
A healthy diet, according to the Department of Health, includes a variety of foods from different food groups. And this should meet the individual needs for calories and nutrients, must be safe, with no risk from toxins, bacteria, mold or chemicals, should also be enjoyable and culturally acceptable, and available and sufficient each day and all year round.
Mayor Oscar Moreno, for his part, acknowledged that some people cannot avoid these diseases, and "this is where the government should come in and make sure that medicines and health care is affordable especially to the marginalized". (With reports from Em Mejala, FSUU Intern)