THE youngest heart attack patient recorded in Suva was just 23 years old.
Medical officer in charge at the Raiwaqa Health Centre, Dr Erum Samreen revealed the case during the final dissemination seminar for the Project for Prevention and Control of NCDs Phase 2.
Dr Samreen said health workers were increasingly seeing people in their early 20s presenting with conditions traditionally associated with patients in their late 60s.
She said while routine screening programs mainly target individuals aged 30 and above, the clinic has been detecting younger patients with high blood pressure, diabetes and other NCD-related complications.
“Anyone during outreach or workplace screening, we are preferably doing it above 30, but we are also not saying no to people who are below 30 as well,” she said.
“Very young people are developing NCDs. At our health centre, the youngest heart attack patient was 23 years old and the youngest hypertension patient was 19 years old.”
She added that screening programs were now identifying younger individuals with elevated blood pressure and blood sugar levels.
As part of the wellness clinic assessments, patients undergo body mass index measurements, waist circumference checks and laboratory testing.
They are also required to complete questionnaires assessing mental health and risky behaviours.
Dr Samreen highlighted another case involving a 27-year-old woman, who was identified during screening, with extremely high blood pressure.
“If we had not done that screening, we would not have picked up that person who is 27 years old with a BP of 163 over 116 which went up to 191 over 124.”
The patient was investigated for secondary hypertension and later referred to specialist clinics through medical outreach services at the health centre.
Dr Samreen also shared a positive case involving a 58-year-old patient who initially presented with borderline high blood pressure and pre-diabetic blood sugar levels. Through follow-up consultations and motivational counselling at the wellness clinic, the patient’s health improved significantly.
Her blood pressure later dropped to 115 over 75 and her blood sugar levels stabilised.
“Even when cases are not immediately controlled, identifying patients early has allowed our health professionals to intervene before severe complications develop.”
Despite limited staffing, Dr Samreen said the health centre had exceeded its performance targets as one of the pilot sites for the program, achieving an 84 per cent success rate.
