By Deb Kroon
Staff Writer
In May 2012, world leaders committed to reducing global mortality from non-communicable diseases (NCD) by 25% by 2025. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is accountable for nearly half of all NCD deaths making it the world’s number one killer. World Heart Day is, therefore, the perfect platform for the CVD community to unite in the fight against CVD and reduce the global disease burden.
Created by the World Heart Federation, World Heart Day informs people around the globe that CVD, including heart disease and stroke, is the world’s leading cause of death claiming 17.9 million lives each year, and highlights the actions that individuals can take to prevent and control CVD. It aims to drive action to educate people that by controlling risk factors such as tobacco use, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity, at least 80% of premature deaths from heart disease and stroke could be avoided.
World Heart Day is a global campaign during which individuals, families, communities, and governments around the world participate in activities to take charge of their heart health and that of others. Through this campaign, the World Heart Federation unites people from all countries and backgrounds in the fight against the CVD burden and inspires and drives international action to encourage heart-healthy living across the world. We and our members believe in a world where heart health for everyone is a fundamental human right and a crucial element of global health justice.
Cardiovascular disease continues to be the leading cause of death and disability in the world today
The term ‘cardiovascular disease’ (CVD) refers to any disease of the heart, vascular disease of the brain, or disease of the blood vessel. More people die from CVDs worldwide than from any other cause: over 17.9 million every year, according to the World Health Organization. Of these deaths, 80% are due to coronary heart diseases (eg heart attack) and cerebrovascular diseases (eg strokes) and mostly affect low- and middle-income countries.
Did you know that your heart is the size of your fist and the strongest muscle in your body? It started beating about three weeks after you were conceived. If you live to be 70, it will have beaten two and a half billion times. However, although impressive and strong, your heart can also become vulnerable from habitual risk factors like smoking, eating an unhealthy diet or putting it under stress. Controlling these key risk factors and monitoring your blood pressure regularly may reduce an individual’s risk of CVD.
The system can also be weakened from a pre-existing heart condition and other physiological factors, including hypertension or high blood cholesterol. When your heart’s functions become compromised, this is known as cardiovascular disease, a broad term that covers any disorder to the system that has the heart at its centre.
CVD and COVID-19
By the beginning of 2020, when we heard of a novel coronavirus with potentially severe consequences, the race was on to learn everything we could and should about it. Before long, and with so much still to be discovered, an unfortunate trend emerged: COVID-19 posed a particular risk to patients with underlying issues such as heart disease, which is already the leading cause of death on the planet.
Also emerging was a worrying trend that heart patients, who would usually seek routine care or need to access emergency services for non-COVID-related issues, were avoiding hospitals and doctors. Across the board, countries noted this dramatic drop, attributing it to fear of contracting the virus.
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), at the root of coronavirus disease or COVID-19, has been claiming lives in ways as diverse as the patient complications observed. It is highly transmissible and strikes with varying forms of severity.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) patients are more susceptible to severe COVID-19. Diseases affecting some form of heart condition or heart function include hypertension and diabetes, acute coronary syndrome, injury to muscles tissues of the heart, (myocardial injury), heart failure, and less heard of but prevalent diseases such as rheumatic heart disease and Chagas disease.
COVID-19 patients need to be triaged or designated for care based on disease severity so that patients with moderate and severe disease are admitted in a separate ward or hospital depending on the available infrastructure. Further, patients also need to be triaged based on underlying health risks such as hypertension, diabetes, prior cardiovascular or respiratory disease, kidney failure and cancer as part of the process to identify patients with a higher likelihood of developing a severe form of COVID-19 and implement targeted care.
Special attention must be given to ensuring that there are separate facilities in place for dealing with COVID-19 cardiac patients and non-COVID-19 cardiac patients including catheterization laboratories for performing invasive heart examinations.
The World Heart Federation has produced lots of resources to spread the word on CVD & COVID-19, including prevention, transmission and vulnerability. You can find some of these on the World Heart Day website and others on the World Heart Federation website. WHF Emerging Leaders have been contributing their global perspectives and helping us get a picture in real-time
For people who have underlying health conditions such as heart disease, the message has to be that your hospital, emergency room, or doctor’s surgery is safe, and if you need to go, you should. The risks of heart attacks and stroke far outweigh the risks of contracting COVID-19 and time is truly of the essence when heart troubles hit. While telemedicine has been an important resource, it should not be seen as a replacement for in-person care nor should it be interpreted as a measure taken because hospital visits have become unsafe.
