PAHO/WHO looking to implement ‘Global Hearts Initiative’ here
From left are: Specialist, Health System Services at PAHO Paul Edwards, PAHO consultants Donald DiPette from the University of South Carolina and Kenneth Connell from the University of the West Indies.
From left are: Specialist, Health System Services at PAHO Paul Edwards, PAHO consultants Donald DiPette from the University of South Carolina and Kenneth Connell from the University of the West Indies.

THE Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) is pushing for the implementation of the ‘Global Hearts Initiative’, in Guyana to help reduce the significant number of deaths that result from cardiovascular diseases.

PAHO/WHO collaborated with the Chronic Disease Unit of the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) to introduce the ‘Hearts Programme’, with a two-day workshop on multi drug therapy and counselling in the management of cardiovascular diseases.

The workshop opened on Monday March 25, at the Marriott Hotel, Kingston, Georgetown targeting doctors from all across Guyana and each of the country’s ten administrative regions.

PAHO consultants Professor Donald DiPette from the University of South Carolina and Dr. Kenneth Connell from the University of the West Indies are conducting the training session.
Through the ‘Global Hearts Initiative,’ WHO is supporting governments to scale up efforts on cardiovascular disease prevention and control through implementation of three technical packages; (EMPOWER for tobacco control, SHAKE for salt reduction, and HEARTS for the strengthening of cardiovascular diseases management in primary health care).

The two-day workshop targets doctors from all across Guyana.

Launched in September 2016, the HEARTS initiative has been rolled out in several countries with health workers being trained to better deliver tested and affordable measures to protect people from the disease, and help them to recover following a heart attack or stroke.

Professor DiPette told this newspaper that, “because of the increasing devastating impact of cardiovascular disease, the WHO several years ago embarked upon packages for individual countries to utilize as support for the disease.” As for the acronym HEART, he explained, “H is for healthy lifestyles, E is evidence based protocols, A is for access to medication, R is for risk factors of the disease, T is for team based care and S is for systems monitoring.”

He said the workshop aims to introduce the HEARTS package and other modalities to spur interest so that Guyana may begin considering its implementation. “This workshop is just to start the discussion and we are hoping that it will stick, so that we can come back for more serious discussions and hopefully, implementation”, he added.

Specialist, Health System Services at PAHO Dr. Paul Edwards explained that in the quest to reduce mortality from cardiovascular diseases, and strengthen the overall health sector response for treatment, prevention and control of such diseases, support was requested from PAHO/WHO to boost health care providers’ capacity in primary care to adequately manage the disease.

Leading cause of death
Dr. Edwards noted cardiovascular diseases being the leading cause of death with an estimated 17.9 million people dying from it in 2016, representing 31 percent of all global deaths. Of these, 85 percent was due to heart attacks and stroke, and three quarters of these deaths occurred in low and middle income countries.

“This phenomenon occurs because people in these countries do not have the benefit of integrated primary health care programmes for early detection and treatment of risk factors compared to those individuals who live in high income countries. As a result, many of these persons are detected late and die younger from these diseases,” Dr. Edwards pointed out.

According to him, the five leading causes of death in Guyana are hypertension, stroke, heart disease, diabetes and cancers, most of which are interrelated.
“Guyana is not immune to the effects of globalization as western lifestyles have infiltrated our culture causing unhealthy modifications to our diet. We now consume more foods high in trans-fats and salt, sit in front of a computer or television for hours at a time, and consume high levels of alcohol”, he observed.

Most cardiovascular diseases, he said, can be prevented by addressing behavioural risk factors such as tobacco use, unhealthy diets, obesity and limiting the use of alcohol.

Furthermore, cost effective introductions have been identified by WHO for prevention and control of cardiovascular diseases which include population-wide and individual intervention. These include comprehensive tobacco control policies, taxation to reduce the intake of foods high in fat, sugar and salt; strategies to reduce the harmful use of alcohol and providing healthy school meals to children.

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