REVENT, TREAT AND SUPPORT: A MANIFESTO FOR STROKE SURVIVORS
Every year, nearly 1.5 million people suffer a stroke in 32 European countries. Stroke can be devastating – leading to death or life-long disability, shattering the lives of victims and their loved ones. Those who survive will join the more than nine million European stroke survivors who live with long-term health, social, and financial impacts.
The EU Non-Communicable Disease Initiative, Healthier Together, launched by the European Commission in 2022, provides opportunities for policy action that both EU-level and national policymakers should build on. We call upon all EU level policymakers, to prioritise stroke in health policies, to support member states to develop national stroke plans and lead research into the under-examined areas of stroke.
The burden of stroke falls upon us all, but especially on stroke survivors and their carers living with its consequences every day. Let us take action to reduce and minimise the burden of stroke on our societies.
Bulgaria is no exception - our country is one of the first places in this regard. The mortality rate from strokes is 270.1 for men and 265.1 for women per 100,000 population. In Bulgaria, 39 82,398 diseases are registered annually, of which 35,311 cases are strokes. Of the 35,311 registered cases of stroke, 7,175 ended in death.
There are 28,136 stroke survivors with varying degrees of disability, which in 10% of them is severe and requires additional care and assistance from family, relatives and society. Of the stroke survivors, 25-50% have speech disorders / aphasia /, and in half of them these disabling disorders remain permanent. Stroke is the second most common cause of dementia, the most common cause of epilepsy in old age and a very common cause of depression.
/ Official statistics from the Ministry of Health /
