Cardiovascular disease takes about 3 million lives in China every year, some 45% of the total deaths. Doubtlessly, the disease has become the top killer of adult Chinese.

A research conducted by Peking Union Medical College Hospital jointly with several American researchers, finds that the incidence of cardiovascular disease and cancer has leaped with the aging of the population. However, cardiovascular disease has started to haunt people in their 30s or 40s, too.

"We can't treat cardiovascular disease merely as an elders' disease," said Hu Dayi, an expert in this field.

Actually, cardiovascular disease cost Chinese some 13 billion yuan in 2003, about 22.65% of the total medical expenses of the country that year, and the expenditure on cardiovascular disease had been growing at an average annual rate of 17.33% from 1993 to 2003, while the GDP growth of China in those 10 years was only 8.95%.

(Chinanews February 8, 2007)