Designated day called for to raise awareness of heart disease

A national political adviser appealed on Thursday for Jan 20 to be designated as National First Aid Day, in order to raise public awareness on cardiopulmonary (heart and lung) resuscitation and accelerate the installment of automated external defibrillator machines in public spaces.

Ao Hushan, an anesthetist from the Fuwai Hospital in Beijing, said that in the past three years, "uplifting progress" has been witnessed in the public access to AED machines, portable and lifesaving devices to resuscitate people experiencing sudden cardiac arrest.

In Shenzhen, Guangdong province, the number of AEDs has risen from 500 in 2018 to about 5,000 recently, and is expected to reach the international standard of 300 devices per 10,000 people in the next five or ten years, according to Ao.

He added that Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, has rolled out new regulations to enforce dissemination of the first-aid devices in public venues, and in Beijing, all subway stations have been equipped with AEDs.

Education and public security authorities have also taken action to increase awareness of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) protocols among students and the police, according to Ao.

"The significance of spreading the use of CPR skills and the installment of AED devices has become a consensus shared by the whole society," he said on the sidelines of the fourth session of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

However, the high incidence of cardiovascular diseases in the country highlights the need to devote more efforts to enhancing training of first-aid skills among the public.

Data shows that 330 million people in China suffer cardiovascular illnesses, and the number is climbing, Ao said.

"The prevalence of CPR in China stands at less than 1 percent, compared with 60 percent in developed countries," he said. "The situation remains challenging."

"I call on the whole society to learn first aid and CPR skills and suggested governments to establish rules and regulations to enforce setting up more AEDs," he said.