Screening for AAA: press release Jan 2008
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7172094.stm
Men in England are to be offered screening for a
potentially fatal blood vessel condition.
Abdominal aortic aneurysm
(AAA), which can cause one of the body's main blood
vessels to burst, is the third most common cause of
death among older men. Over the next five years,
ultrasound scan screening will be rolled out across
60 centres to cover all men aged 65 and over. The
Department of Health says this will save 700 lives a
year within 10 years. Doctors welcomed the
announcement, but called for more details to be
given on how the screening programme will be funded
and organised.
The announcement comes
ahead of a speech on the NHS by Prime Minister
Gordon Brown on Monday, in which he is expected to
stress the importance of measures to prevent ill
health.
Early detection
So far about £3m has been
set aside for pilot projects this year which will
offer screening to 32,000 men in England. Eventually
it is hoped 270,000 men a year will be screened. Men
are six times more likely to have an aneurysm than
women. If detected early enough, the condition can
be corrected by surgery. The abdominal aorta carries
blood to the intestines and other organs nearby and
if an aneurysm occurs in this area it can be fatal,
with most patients dying before they get to
emergency care. Announcing the screening programme,
Health Secretary Alan Johnson said: "We should be
looking at how to stop disease taking hold in the
first place. "The programme is a very good example
of the kind of measures we will have to make more
widely available if we are going to expect
clinicians and public to take more responsibility
for early identification and lifestyle changes."
Men-only
This is the NHS's first
men-only screening programme. AAA kills over 3,000
men a year - roughly twice as many deaths as
cervical cancer for women, which has its own
screening programme. "Key to success will be funding
to train technicians to undertake the scans and for
the organisational infrastructure of the scheme. We
await further information on this."
Jonothan Earnshaw, honorary secretary of the
Vascular Society, which represents specialists in
this area, said: "We welcome the announcement of an
abdominal aortic aneurysm screening programme and
look forward to working with the government.
http://hcd2.bupa.co.uk/fact_sheets/html/aortic_aneurysm.html
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