GUARDIAN ME­DIA NEWS­ROOM

Every year, over eight mil­lion women glob­al­ly die from heart dis­ease and strokes, more than from can­cers, HIV/AIDS, and malar­ia com­bined.

It is why the Vice Pres­i­dent of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Heart Foun­da­tion, Dr Pravin­de Ra­moutar, is urg­ing women to take bet­ter care of their health.

On Wednes­day, Dr Ra­moutar and his team were ho­n­oured dur­ing "He­roes Month" at the 519 Restau­rant & Lounge in San Fer­nan­do.

The Foun­da­tion has pro­vid­ed health care ser­vices for 26 years

Dr Pravinde Ramoutar, Vice President of the Trinidad and Tobago Heart Foundation, speaks with Guardian Media about the troubling incidence of heart disease among women in this country, on Wednesday 28 August 2024. [Image by RISHI RAGOONATH]

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia, Dr Ra­moutar re­vealed that 3,400 peo­ple die from heart dis­ease in Trinidad and To­ba­go, every year.

He says women need to take heart dis­ease se­ri­ous­ly, as it re­mains a lead­ing cause of death.

“Women al­so need to rec­og­nize they are at risk for heart dis­ease,” the heart spe­cial­ist stat­ed. “Very of­ten, women re­act dif­fer­ent­ly to the same symp­toms.  Women’s health seek­ing be­hav­iour might be dif­fer­ent.  They may not think or sus­pect that they will be prone to heart dis­ease, and so they down­play their symp­toms and seek health care very late.”

The “He­roes Month” event, sup­port­ed by the Greater San Fer­nan­do Cham­ber of Com­merce, al­so ho­n­oured oth­er or­ga­ni­za­tions for their con­tri­bu­tions to the com­mu­ni­ty.