Killer No. 1

To publicize National Heart Week (Feb. 7-14), the American Heart Association released some grim statistics:

P:Last year, as in every year for the last 25, diseases of the heart and blood vessels remained U.S. public killer No. 1: they killed more people than the next five leading causes of death (excluding accidents) combined. During World War II, 325,000 men died in battle; in the same period, 2,000,000 Americans died from heart disease.

P:This year heart and circulatory ailments will kill at least 600,000 people, cause the loss of about 152,000,000 work days. The three biggest killers in the No. 1 killer's squad: rheumatic fever, hypertensive heart disease (due to high blood pressure), coronary heart disease (usually due to hardening of the two main heart arteries). What causes them? Nobody knows for sure.

P:Heart disease research is a mouse-poor stepchild. In the whole U.S., there are only 374 cardiologists, doctors especially trained in the study of the heart and care of heart patients. For every death from infantile paralysis, $525 is spent annually in the U.S. on research; for every death from cancer, $2.13; for every death from heart disease, 17-c-. The $800,000 the A.H.A. hopes to raise in the campaign launched last week (even when added to U.S. Public Health Service funds of $889,500) will not even the score, but will help research into causes & cures, improve treatment and training.

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