Rise in stroke cases

There has been at least a 15 per cent increase in the incidents of stroke cases in Barbados.

Lead Researcher of the Barbados National Registry for Non-Communicable Disease, Dr. Natasha Sobers, shared this finding while addressing the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Barbados Inc.'s 'World Stroke Day' 35th anniversary public lecture and panel discussion. This was held this week at 'The Walled Garden Theatre' located at the Barbados Museum and Historical Society.

Dr. Sobers stated this percentage was derived from looking at data collected from the 2010 to 2018 period. She noted although the Registry is seeing an increase, they "are not always able to pinpoint which ones are the first-ever strokes sometimes because the documentation within the data. So incidents that you would probably be seeing for the first ever are probably underreported".

Dr. Sobers also shared with the audience that though the data showed there has been an increase in stroke cases, there has not been a rise in persons dying locally from strokes. She explained the reason for this. 

"What is also interesting is that the mortality rate or the death rate is staying about the same. If we are seeing that increase in rate and we are having the same in the morality rate, the suggestion then is that perhaps there are more people perhaps living with disabilities that come from having a stroke. That certainly ought to be a concern for us because sometimes, you are thinking how then do we re-duce that disability that people are living with after they have had a stroke and that is where the [Intravenous] Thrombolysis comes in because as we heard, it can increase the number of people that are alive and independent. The Thrombolysis then becomes really, very important that we have few people living with the disability after the stroke." (MG)