Hyderabad: The Telangana government on Wednesday launched a mass CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) training programme for first responders and field-level healthcare workers across the state, in a bid to reduce deaths due to increasing incidents of cardiac arrests, especially among youngsters.
The event was launched at GVK-EMRI in Medchal, in the presence of IT minister K.T. Rama Rao and MA&UD special chief secretary Arvind Kumar.
Health minister T. Harish Rao highlighted that 15 lakh people die of sudden cardiac arrest every year in India, with an average of 4,000 deaths per day. He said that the number of deaths can be reduced by CPR and that WHO and many other health organisations estimate that half the deaths can be avoided.
“Food habits have changed and work stress is also adding to health issues. Cardiac arrests have increased since the Coronavirus pandemic. We will make everyone aware of the CPR process. The health department is working to take CPR to municipalities and panchayats,” he said.
Rama Rao said that on his suggestion to procure automated external defibrillators (AEDs), the government decided to install AEDs in all public areas and even in apartment complexes. In the first phase, the government will procure nearly 1,200 AEDs.
