Meat intake during Eid makes Dhaka medicos see red

DHAKA - Concerned over the amount of meat eaten during Eid-ul-Azha festivities when heart complications increase by about 10 percent, Bangladesh’s medicos have issued a warning against excessive consumption of red or processed meat.

Like Muslims across the world, Bangladesh celebrated Eid last week when an estimated 2.5 million cows and goats were sacrificed. The faithful also distributed meat among relatives and neighbours.

Experts representing public and private heart disease treatment centres said the number of patients with heart complications increases at least by 10 percent during the period of Eid-ul-Azha.

“The intake of red meat becomes a fashion almost in every house,” The Daily Star newspaper noted Tuesday.

The high intake of red meat during this period ultimately invite disease with heart ailments, it quoted sources at the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD).

The medicos said the time was very crucial for those who already have high pressure and high cholesterol.

Heart diseases have emerged as a major public health threat to health in Bangladesh. The latest survey on cardiovascular diseases revealed that around 35 percent of the adult population is exposed to heart-related diseases.

Labaid Cardiac Hospital sources said around 1,800 heart patients are being treated every week at its outdoor and 120 indoor wards.

Hospitals, including the NICVD and National Heart Foundation of Bangladesh, have taken special measures to handle the higher number of patients during the Eid festival, the official news agency BSS said.