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Show Disease of Heart Claims Most Persons in Utah The nation's No. One health enemy, heart and blood vessel diseases, claimed more lives in Utah during the past year than all other causes of death combined, com-bined, it was reported this week. Cardiovascular deaths totaled 2,798 in the state during 1960, according to Dr. James F. Orme, president of the Utah Heart Association, As-sociation, which compiled the figures from the official records of the Bureau of Vital Statistics, Statis-tics, Utah Department of Public Health. The total number of deaths from all causes was 5,997. The heart diseases thus accounted account-ed for 46.7 per cent of all deaths in the past year, Dr. Orme said. The local figures are slightly below those for the entire country coun-try as compiled by the National Bureau of Vital Statistics for 1960, the latest nationwide summary sum-mary available. According to the figures, heart and blood vessel diseases caused the deaths of 921,540 Americans, more than 54 per cent of all deaths. The next three leading causes of death in Utah were: Cancer, 799; accidents, 549; pneumonia-influenza, pneumonia-influenza, 179. This held true nationally with cancer claiming 265,260 lives; accidents, 93,330; and pneumonia-influenza 65,280. On a county basis, Wasatch had the biggest percentages of deaths from heart and blood vessel diseases with 59.5. It was closely followed by Juab, 59.2; Rich, 57.1; Summit, 56.6; Cache, 56.4; Morgan and Piute, both 55. "Although the heart and blood vessel diseases are still the nation's na-tion's leading killers, medical science has made impressive gains in the fight against them," Dr. Orme pointed out. "Many thousands of persons children and adults alike are surviving heart and blood vessel diseases that physicians considered consid-ered hopeless only two decades ago," he said. "Research has developed improved im-proved techniques for early diagnosis diag-nosis of cardiovascular disorders. In recent years we have seen the development of new drugs, new and more effective methods of treatment and rehabilitation, and spectacular advances in surgery. sur-gery. As a result, most heart attack at-tack victims now recover, and three out of four will go back to work. New drugs and surgery can control high blood pressure in most cases. Rheumatic fever, forerunner of rheumatic heart disease, now can be prevented," he continued. "Strokes are no longer hopeless, and invalidism can often be reduced and even prevented. Through surgery, acquired ac-quired heart damage can be repaired, re-paired, inborn defects corrected and diseased arteries replaced. "Much of this progress has resulted re-sulted from scientific research made possible by the millions of dollars the public contributed to the Heart Fund since 1948, the year the Heart Association became be-came a national voluntary organization. or-ganization. With your continued help, an expanded research program pro-gram might produce new major breatkhroughs within the lifetimes life-times of many of us," he said. Gifts may be mailed to Heart, care of the local Pastmaster. |