Simione Tuvuki 
[Source: Ministry of Health & Medical Services - Fiji/ Facebook]
The Ministry of Health through the Colonial War Memorial Hospital’s Stroke Team has commenced with thrombolysis to prevent stroke among vulnerable Fijians.
It is known as a clot-buster, which is the use of medicine to dissolve blood-clot in the brain and restore the flow of blood within four-and-half hours after people show symptoms of stroke.
CWM Senior Consultant Physician Doctor Shrish Acharya says it is one of the option for treatment available to minimize the damage to the brain in order to reduce the amount of paralysis a person suffers from stroke.
“Now we have medication and our team that can burst that clot. And then the blood supply can be established again. And therefore the brain damage can be either minimized or even completely avoided.”
Dr Acharya says they also have to control other factors along with the treatment, which includes the consumption of tobacco and alcohol which determines an individual’s level of cholesterol and blood pressure.
He also debunks misconceptions about stroke, saying that the problem is not in the arm of leg as people opt to undertake massage but it is in the brain.
The Ministry of Health achieved a milestone after it undertook its first-ever thrombolysis for stroke at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital in Suva earlier last month.
