Deaths and disability due to stroke are expected to rise alarmingly over the next 30 years, with almost 10 million stroke deaths forecast annually by 2050, according to a new report from the World Stroke Organization-Lancet Neurology Commission Stroke Collaboration Group.
"This highlights the need for urgent measures to reduce stroke burden worldwide, with an emphasis on low- and middle-income countries," the report states.
These measures include an increase in trained healthcare workers who can implement effective primary prevention strategies, including the early detection and adequate management of hypertension.
On the basis of a review of evidence-based guidelines, recent surveys, and in-depth interviews with stroke experts around the world, the World Stroke Organization-Lancet Neurology Commission makes evidence-based pragmatic recommendations to reduce the global burden of stroke, including measures to improve surveillance, prevention, acute care, and rehabilitation.
The Commission report was announced on October 10 by World Stroke Organization president, Sheila Martins, MD, at the World Stroke Conference in Toronto. The report was also published online in The Lancet Neurology on October 9.
"Stroke care has changed a lot in the last few years," Martins, who is chief of neurology and neurosurgery at Hospital Moinhos de Vento, Porto Alegre, Brazil, and founder and president of the Brazilian Stroke Network, told
