By Asmau Ahmad
AstraZeneca, a pharmaceutical company, has called for public-private partnerships and strong healthcare systems to combat cardiovascular diseases in Africa.
Senior Director of Corporate Affairs for the Middle East and Africa Region at AstraZeneca, Qutaiba Al Manaseer, made the call during a webinar organised to celebrate nine years of impact in the fight against hypertension through the Healthy Heart Africa (HHA) programme.
The webinar was also held to mark the World Heart Day.
Healthy Heart Africa is an initiative of AstraZeneca, being implemented across Africa in collaboration with African governments and non-governmental organisations.
Manaseer said the programme had helped to decrease the burden of cardiovascular diseases and non-communicable diseases in Africa.
He said according to the World Health Organisation, hypertension affects one in three adults worldwide and Africa has the highest prevalence of hypertension in any region.
Manaseer said the number of adults suffering from high blood pressure in sub-Saharan Africa was also projected to reach 216.8 million by 2030.
He added that in 2019, more than one million deaths were due to cardiovascular diseases in sub-Saharan Africa, which constituted 5.4 per cent of all global CVD-related deaths and 13 per cent of all deaths in Africa.
On what HHA had done since its inception in 2014, Manaseer said the programme had conducted over 38.5 million blood pressure screenings and diagnosed over 3.1 million people.
“We have trained over 10,600 healthcare workers, including doctors, nurses, community health volunteers and pharmacists to provide education, awareness, screening and treatment services.
“Also, we have activated over 1,300 healthcare facilities to provide hypertension services.
“Healthy Heart Africa has demonstrated the power of public-private partnerships in delivering sustainable solutions that strengthen the resilience of local health systems.
“We will continue collaborating with stakeholders to tackle the silent killer hypertension and improve patient outcomes,” Manaseer said.
Interim Country President, AstraZeneca in African Cluster, Mr. Deepak Arora, said transforming the lives of patients, and ensuring people in Africa had access to innovative medicines was of major importance to them.
He noted that through the HHA, they would continue to Invest in medical education and knowledge sharing by ensuring healthcare professionals have access to information to make the best treatment decisions.
“Healthy Heart Africa is on track to achieve its ambition of reaching 10 million people with elevated blood pressure by 2025, with 7.7 million readings recorded so far,” Arora added.
Dr Yvette Kisaka, in charge of the Programmes, Division of NCD Prevention and Control, Ministry of Health Kenya said, “We need to strengthen health systems to achieve Universal Health Coverage, as envisioned by Sustainable Development Goal three on good health and wellbeing.
“That is why together with our partners, we are developing strategies such as the National Guidelines for the Management of Cardiovascular Diseases.
“We applaud the Healthy Heart Africa programme’s pivotal role in the fight against cardiovascular disease in Kenya and we will continue to collaborate with all stakeholders to ensure a healthier future for our citizens.”
Kisaka explained that HHA supported local health system resilience by addressing the barriers that prevented access to care by increasing awareness of the symptoms and risks of hypertension.
