2024-09-11 02:31:38
All heart diseases are increasing – even if only slight. The German Heart Foundation believes that heart failure remains the challenge of the century.
It is estimated that up to four million people in Germany suffer from heart failure, also known as cardiac insufficiency. Over 37,000 people die from it every year. This makes the widespread disease the third most common cause of death and one of the most common reasons for sudden cardiac death. In addition, mortality from heart disease in general, but also from heart failure, is increasing again for the first time.
This is highlighted in the “German Heart Report – Update 2024”, which the German Heart Foundation presented together with the professional societies for cardiology, cardiac surgery, pediatric cardiology and cardiovascular rehabilitation.
“These increases compared to the previous year require more detailed analysis, but overall they do not represent a reversal of the trend. However, the goal of all institutions responsible for cardiac care must clearly be to reduce mortality through improvements in the prevention, therapy and rehabilitation of cardiovascular diseases,” emphasized cardiologist Prof. Dr. Thomas Voigtländer, Chairman of the Board of the German Heart Foundation, at the presentation of the new German Heart Report – Update 2024.
Heart failure and sudden cardiac death are mainly caused by other diseases such as high blood pressure or coronary heart disease. In the latter case, the blood flow to the heart muscle is obstructed.
Heart failure is caused by, among other things, too little exercise and being overweight. Other risk factors include age and genetic factors. Men are also affected much more often than women.
“Around 50 percent of all people suffering from heart failure die within six years of diagnosis,” the report states. Only a few patients can be transplanted – partly because there is a shortage of donor organs in Germany. The German Heart Foundation therefore believes that heart failure remains the challenge of the century.
Franziska Bleis was also recently on a waiting list for a donor heart. The 37-year-old, who was healthy at the time, first came down with a cold in 2019 – and then had severe myocarditis, as she said when presenting the report. Because her condition worsened massively, she was hospitalized and suddenly became a heart patient. She almost died several times and was resuscitated, she said. It quickly became clear that she needed a donor heart and was put on a high-urgency list. She has since received a donor organ.
According to the heart report, 678 people aged 16 and over were on the waiting list in 2022, and 21 children (up to 15 years old) were waiting for a donor heart in the same year. A total of 42 children and 316 people aged 16 and over were transplanted, according to figures from Eurotransplant and the German Foundation for Organ Transplantation.
98 organs came from abroad in 2022, it said. Germany is therefore the only member country of the Eurotransplant network for donor organs that does not have an opt-out solution. In principle, every person is considered a potential organ donor unless they have expressly objected.