The Director of the Cardiothoracic Centre, Dr Lawrence Agyeman Serebour has expressed worry over the surge in shisha consumption amongst the youth.

Speaking at a forum to commemorate World Heart Day on Tuesday, Dr Serebour said the unhealthy lifestyle threatens the vibrant hearts of the youth, therefore, making them vulnerable to cardiovascular diseases.

He noted that with the occurrence of the Covid-19 pandemic, the virus could equally be deadly, should a shisha smoker contract it.

“It is said that if you spend one-hour smoking shisha is equivalent to smoking 100 sticks of cigarettes and this is a problem, so the youth should watch out.

“We know that on a Friday evening and weekends that is where the youth want to [do things] that would develop certain effects in the future,” he warned.

The Director of the Cardiothoracic Centre also highlighted unhealthy lifestyles such as excessive alcohol intake, bad eating habits, obesity and lack of exercise to be a contributing factor to making people vulnerable to heart-related diseases.

Touching on the atrocity of this ailments on the human resources of the country, Dr Serebour revealed that heart related-diseases accounts for 25 per cent of deaths in the country.

He therefore, noted that with concern that government, stakeholders and the citizenry to commit themselves in finding amicable methods to solve beat this ‘silent killer’.

To smokers, particularly the youth, he urged them to quit as soon as possible in order to stay clear of the looming cardiovascular disease should they persist with it.

“It is estimated that 80 per cent pre mature deaths from heart diseases can be avoided if we take measures to cut down on all these risk factors.

“This call to action is about using our hearts, heads, influence and compassion to fight against cardiovascular diseases,” he said.