The Gulf region might be facing an epidemic of heart disease in the next two decades, experts have warned.
Professor Mohammed Arafah, based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, specialises in cardiovascular risk factors and prevention.
He believes: "We are on the edge of an epidemic. The cardiac problem is progressing too fast to be coped with and there is under-treatment of risk factors."
Professor Arafah presented his latest work at the Saudi Heart Association annual conference this week.
He says that, although at least half of the population is below the age of 25, the high rate of risk factors such as obesity, diabetes and metabolic syndrome "signals a massive wave of cardiovascular disease in ten to 15 years".
Cardiovascular centres are already bursting at the seams, he adds, and prevention services are nonexistent. These diseases currently cause 45% of early deaths in the Gulf region.
European experts are attending the conference, to add their thoughts on prevention.
Professor David Wood of Imperial College London, UK, added: "The biggest challenge in the Middle East and Saudi Arabia in particular is the growing prevalence of obesity. Coupled with that is the correspondingly high prevalence of diabetes mellitus. These together put their population at great risk of premature cardiovascular disease. They really have a true epidemic on their hands."
He added: "In Saudi Arabia, whilst they have world class facilities in interventional cardiology, they do not have the comparable services in cardiovascular prevention. And that is a big gap in their national health service.
"They need to seize the opportunity of coupling their world class interventional cardiology facilities with world class prevention services."
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