CARDIOVASCULAR diseases are Fiji’s main killer, says Pacific Specialist Healthcare cardiologist Dr Sanjeev Kumar Khubey.
He said while there were increasing solutions to addressing the disease through specialised health and medical care in Fiji, locals should strive to adopt a more health conscious lifestyle.
“NCDs is a major issue in Fiji,” said Dr Khubey.
“Currently cardiovascular deaths are the major cause of NCD-related mortality in Fiji.
“The investigative part is not yet advanced to identify these things much earlier. And the lifestyle is definitely a major contributor.”
He said Fijians have adopted a lifestyle that has a high chance of contracting a non communicable disease.
“The olden days diet was good, but their current lifestyle is bad.
“People are adapting to the new lifestyle which is actually affecting them.
“We have the sea around us, and we could have fresh fish, but we prefer to eat canned tuna and canned salmon.
“We don’t want what is there in the sea that is fresh.
“We are consuming almost everything that is preserved, frozen or fried in oil.”
Dr Khubey said the hospital received and conducted surgery an average of 15 cardiac cases each month.
“On average we are operating on 15 cardiac cases in a month.
“The thing is we are also getting cases from surrounding nations as well. There are nearly 30 patients that we are getting from Samoa, Tonga, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Nauru.
“People are finding out that there are facilities available to them they could access and they are opting for it because of the position of the hospital and PSH has all of those capabilities.”
According to the Ministry of Health, nearly 3000 annual deaths are explicitly tied to cardiovascular conditions.
Dr Sanjeev Kumar Khubey. Picture: REPEKA NASIKO
