Knowing of the seriousness of heart disease in the Solomon Islands, I wish to share with readers and the government, MHMS and the medical staff of the National Referral Hospital (NTH) news of a so called wonder pill now available in the United Kingdom and offered to heart failure patients that cuts deaths and hospitalisations by a quarters – and vasty improves quality of life.
I am not aware of the procurement procedure for drugs in the Solomon Islands but hope the following news might allow for the so called “wonder pill” to be obtained and prescribed to heart patients at home.
I will quote the news of the heart pill which was published today, Sunday, in the UK’s Daily Mail newspaper.
Quote.
Last month National Health Service spending watchdogs approved the new medication, empagliflozin, for those with the most severe form of the disease who had failed to respond to other treatments.
Now, just weeks later, doctors say health chiefs are poised to also offer the drug to sufferers who still have relatively strong heart function – known as ‘preserved’ heart failure – in an effort to slow the progression of the disease.
Cardiologist Dr Sharmaine Thirunavukarasu, who headed up a University of Leeds study of empagliflozin, said the move could vastly improve survival rates in the UK.
‘This is a revolutionary drug and trials show it clearly cuts hospitalisations and deaths even in patients at an earlier stage,’ she said. ‘Soon we will have medication to offer almost all patients, from those with severe disease to people with earlier stage heart failure, to help prevent them deteriorating quickly.’
Heart failure affects nearly one million Britons and occurs when the heart becomes too weak or stiff and is unable to pump blood effectively round the body.
While there have been a number of major treatment advances in recent decades, one in five patients with heart failure still dies within a year of diagnosis.
Those living with heart failure experience a number of debilitating symptoms. symptoms.breatlessbreathlessness. an.crushing fatigue
Sufferers are often hospitalised, and there are roughly 86,000 emergency heart failure hospital admissions every year in the UK.
While there have been a number of major treatment advances in recent decades, one in five patients with heart failure still dies within a year of diagnosis.
Around half of patients have a form of the disease known as heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, or HFrEF, which means the amount of blood the organ can pump out with each beat is significantly less than it should be.
The other half have heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, or HFpEF, a less severe form.
Most HFpEF patients deteriorate and a transplant is the only real cure.
Empagliflozin was initially designed to combat heart failure in type 2 diabetes patients.
But diabetes doctors soon noted that patients taking it were more likely to see their heart function and blood pressure improve than those who didn’t.
In June 2021, The Mail on Sunday revealed that a University of Leeds trial which observed a group of type 2 diabetes patients on the drug, found that empagliflozin had a direct effect on the heart muscle, making it stronger.
Patients on the trial, run by Dr Thirunavukarasu, also lost weight.
Meanwhile UK study data presented to NHS spending body the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, showed that patients with HFrEF who took empagliflozin alongside their current medications were 25 per cent less likely to be hospitalised or die from heart failure.
Last month NHS spending watchdogs approved the new medication, empagliflozin, for those with the most severe form of the disease who had failed to respond to other treatments.
Another trial, run simultaneously, showed that patients with HFpEF who took the drug were 20 per cent less likely to end up in hospital with heart problems.
Doctors say this is significant because, until now, there have been very few treatments which can effectively treat heart failure HFpEF patients, who instead are forced to wait until their condition deteriorates before they receive medication.
Source – UK Daily Mail newspaper.
Comment
As empagliflozin was initially designed to combat heart failure in type 2 diabetic patients (diabetes being another major health concern in the Solomon Islands) empagliflozin might well be available at home without the need for extra special procurement.
Yours sincerely
Frank Short
