Jamaica’s Ministry of Health is considering funding treatment for stroke, as the condition is increasingly threatening younger people.
Last year 2,400 out of 7,300 stroke patients died from stroke, after the condition became the leading cause of death in Jamaica in 2019.
Stroke also resulted in more deaths than Covid between January 2020 and December 2021, according to the Health Minister, Dr Christopher Tufton.
Tufton is hoping that thrombolytic therapy – used for the emergency treatment of stroke and heart attack – will be added to the list of medical subsidies provided by the country’s National Health Fund (NHF).
Currently, the cost of thrombolytic treatment for stroke patients is prohibitive and is only offered by the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI).
“There would be a cost analysis done to determine what it would cost in a given year,” the minister told the Jamaica Observer.
“It’s an expensive set of drugs. There is an alternative, but still expensive, so we’re going to be looking at that and having a conversation around that, so that [NHF subsidy] is very possible as part of the overall response to helping to control and to restore stroke victims to normal activity.
“We will look at it, but it has to be done in the initial stages, with some sort of cost assessment.”
According to the Jamaican Health Ministry, around 20 strokes occur daily, one-third of which are fatal.
The lack of rehabilitation facilities means that a large number of survivors are left with disability, loss of income, and financial burden.
“Given the lack of acute stroke care facilities, the health care system provides little current ability to modify outcomes when a stroke occurs,” Tufton said, adding that deaths from stroke exceed deaths from violence and traffic accidents combined.
Although the majority of strokes occur beyond age 50, between 10 and 15 per cent of cases are present in patients between 18 to 50 years old.
According to WHO data, stroke is the number one killer of Jamaican women, killing twice as many women as cancer does each year. The condition is also the number one cause of permanent and long-term disability of working age Jamaican adults, leading to poverty in many Jamaican families.
In 2020, the World Stroke Organisation launched the Jamaica Stroke Alliance to raise awareness of stroke and provide support for those affected.
