 I am Dr. Peshoba, stroke neurologist from Manipal Hospital, Malaysia. Tomorrow is the World Stroke Day, that is 29th of October 2021. The slogan for the World Stroke Day is minutes can save lives. So let us learn a bit about stroke. So what is stroke? Stroke is a medical emergency. It's a brain attack, like a heart attack. There are two major types of stroke, ischemic stroke and hemorrhagic stroke. In ischemic stroke, there will be a blood vessel blocked by the clot and consequently the brain will be deprived of blood supply and the patient will have symptoms and signs of stroke. And in a hemorrhagic stroke, there will be bleeding of a blood vessel and the blood in the brain will lead to the neurological deterioration. So what are the symptoms and signs of stroke? We need to remember it by the acronym FAST, where F stands for face, A for arm, S for speech and when these things are there, time is very important. So to repeat FAST, F for face, the face becomes droopy on one side, A for arm, arm or the leg can get weak, speech can become garbled, the person might not be able to understand speech or might not be able to bring out words. When these signs are evident, one needs to rush to the closest stroke-ready hospital. So what is the stroke-ready hospital? The stroke-ready hospital should have a minimum of a CT brain and a neurologist or a physician who would be able to administer the life saving TPA. So there are two medications, alteplase and tenecteplase. The person needs to, the patient needs to come to the hospital within four and a half hours of onset of stroke. The first one hour of stroke is called the golden hour. In addition to this, we can do something called mechanical thrombectomy if the angios shows a major vessel block. So what are the risk factors for stroke? The risk factors are high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, sedentary lifestyle, smoking, tobacco cheating, alcoholism, etc. So if the risk factors are well controlled, the person will not develop stroke. However, if the patient develops stroke, the patient needs to hurry to a stroke-ready hospital and get the treatment during the golden hour. Suppose the patient gets late, say by a day or so. Still we do offer treatment, but the treatment would be slightly less effective than the early thrombolysis treatment. So in general, the public needs to be aware of the signs and symptoms of stroke, the risk factors of stroke, because in stroke each minute counts.