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 Your Excellencies Gao Qiang, Acting Minister, Ministry of Public Health,Li Xueyong, Vice-Minister, Ministry of Science and Technology,Honorable Sir, Professor Richard Peto, All distinguished guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, First of all, it gives me great pleasure and privilege, on behalf of the organizer, to thank you all for coming to celebrate the opening of the International Heart Forum2004, Beijing. International Heart Forum (IHF) is a new meeting, hosted by National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases Prevention and Treatment (NCCD) under the Ministry of Public Health, China. During the forum, you can meet the scientists who are shipping the future of science, and listen to the most influential cardiologist in the world discussing the past, the present and the fi2ture of heart disease and stroke. We believe the forum is one of the most comprehensive cardiovascular education programs in East. China has 1.3 billion people, one fourth of the world; heart disease and stroke together constitute the number I killer in this country. In the past 50 years, due to better understanding the risk factors of heart disease and stroke, the prevalence and incidence of these diseases declined dramatically by 50% in United States and West Europe. The life expectancy increased by 50% in the world, mid 90% in China. In the battle against coronary heart disease, interventional cardiology and cardiac surgery do improve the quality of life and prolong the patient's life. When we celebrate the triumph in research, we should remember that we still have a long way to go. Our task is not only to win the battle but to win the war against atherosclerosis. Since 1958, hypertension, the major risk factor for heart disease and stroke increase by 3 times and death from heart disease and stroke increase by 4 times in China. Stroke prevalence is twice coronary heart disease, hemorrhagic stroke represents 20-40% of all type of stroke in China, much higher than in North America and West Europe. More than 100 million Chinese, half of US population, have hypertension, the major risk factor for heart disease and stroke. Unfortunately, 55.3% of them unaware of it, 28.2% on medication, but only 8.1% under control. Heart failure continued, steadily increase every year. Unhealthy life style is increasingly imported and adopted by people here, such as cigarette smoking, alcohol, physical inactivity, obesity. Within China 50 times of the difference in the prevalence of heart disease and 10 time differences of stroke were identified among various areas. Most identified risk factors for heart and stroke mainly come from studies performed on Westerners. Most guidelines for prevention and treatment of heart disease and stroke are based on those Western studies. Chinese Authority recognizes that the disparity of cardiovascular disease and stroke is critical, complex, and requires further investigation. So the NCCD was established and the IHF held in Beijing today. We hope, the world could tell us their experiences, we could share our specific concerns and our experience that could benefit the world as well. We want to make friends through the Forum, we could not have set that task without our friendship, but we cannot accomplish it with friendship alone, we sincerely hope, we can exchange idea and sustain our existing collaborations, strengthen it and foster the new one. I once again would like to take this opportunity to express our great appreciation for our national legislation leader, government officials present here for supporting the forum. We heartily thank you all, distinguished guests, colleagues from both abroad, and domestic for joining us these 3 days in Beijing. We are also most grateful for grant support from our many friends, supporters, without their generous support, many programs will be difficult. Finally, we sincerely hope your participating the forum will be worthwhile and rewarding. Thank you for your attention. |
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