HALF as many Chinese stroke victims as Caucasians can be treated by a world breakthrough treatment announced by the Prince of Wales Hospital, researchers who worked on the treatment say.
That and the lack of knowledge about strokes meant the Hospital Authority should work faster to set up dedicated stroke units offering treatment, research and education, doctors said yesterday.
Hong Kong was lagging behind Singapore and Japan in setting up such units, Neurological Society president Dr Chan Yuk-wah said.
Although three units were due to open next year, choice of hospitals and exact dates had not been decided, said a Hospital Authority spokesman.
Strokes are the third biggest killer in Hong Kong and the number is rising as the population ages. More than 15,000 people are treated a year and more than 3,000 died of the disease in 1993.
About 30 per cent of Chinese stroke victims are struck down by a haemorrhage when a blood vessel bursts in the brain. For this type of stroke, blood-thinning drugs such as heparin studied at four Hong Kong hospitals and revealed in the South China Morning Post yesterday were useless, Chinese University dean of medicine Professor Arthur Li Kwok-cheung said.
The figure was the same for blacks but compared with only 15 per cent of whites who had haemorrhagic strokes, said Dr Chan.
