Heart death push

Health secretary John Reid has launched a new drive to reduce the number of deaths from unexpected and sudden cardiac death syndrome, which claims the lives of 400 young and apparently healthy people a year. The measures form a new chapter in the national service framework for coronary heart disease. Mr Reid also announced that over the last six years premature deaths from heart disease had fallen by 27 per cent since 1999 and that an estimated 25,000 lives had been saved.