Vice President Hamid Ansari has strongly favoured the need to develop a comprehensive approach to combat heart disease in the country. He said it is achieving epidemic proportions with roughly three crore heart patients and two lakh surgeries being performed annually. <br/><br/>Inaugurating the 11th world heart day event in New Delhi yesterday, Mr Ansari said to fight the disease, focus has to be on education and access to proper health facilities. He said, for this, both the public and the private sectors have to work together. <br/><br/>The Vice President said demographic projections suggest a major increase in cardiovascular disease mortality as life expectancy increases and the age structure of the growing population changes. He added that heart disease is now the world's leading causes of death, claiming 17.3 million lives each year.