WHO launches “Global Hearts Initiative”(Global Hearts): 22 September 2016

The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a new initiative to tackle cardiovascular disease.

The initiative, called “Global Hearts” is part of a new effort to scale up prevention and control of CVD, especially in developing countries. It is a collaboration between WHO, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC), and other partners, including the World Heart Federation, the World Stroke Organization, the International Society of Hypertension, and the World Hypertension League.

Key Messages:

Cardiovascular disease is the world’s leading killer, accounting for more than 17 million deaths each year.

The Global Hearts Initiative aims to reduce deaths due to cardiovascular disease in low and middle-income countries by employing strategies that have been proven to be effective in developed countries.

The Global Hearts Initiative comprises three technical packages:

• SHAKE: a new set of evidence-backed policy options and examples to support governments to lower population salt consumption. If fully implemented in every country, SHAKE could save millions of lives per year and dramatically reduce the burden of NCDs on health systems.

• HEARTS: This technical package gives countries the tools to incorporate cardiovascular disease management best practices at the primary health care level to reduce cardiovascular risk factors such as high blood pressure and high blood cholesterol. HEARTS aims to prevent heart attacks and strokes through equitable access to ongoing, standardized and quality care.

• MPOWER: Tobacco kills around 6 million people every year. MPOWER is a set of six practical, affordable and achievable measures to help countries implement specific provisions of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. This new push will help scale up efforts by many countries that are already implementing the MPOWER package of demand-reduction interventions for effective tobacco control.

The Global Hearts Initiative will be initially rolled out in Barbados, Colombia, Ethiopia, India, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Jordan, Nepal, Nigeria, Philippines, Tajikistan, Thailand and Uganda – and will be open to all countries wishing to participate.

Useful Links:

Link to the news release:

http://who.int/cardiovascular_diseases/global-hearts/Global_hearts_initiative/en/

Link to the WHO Global Hearts Initiative web page:

http://who.int/cardiovascular_diseases/global-hearts/en/

Link to the HEARTS Technical package for cardiovascular disease management in primary health care:

http://who.int/cardiovascular_diseases/hearts/Hearts_package.pdf?ua=1

Link to the SHAKE technical package for salt reduction:

http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/250135/1/9789241511346-eng.pdf?ua=1

Link to Global Hearts Initiative brochure:

http://who.int/cardiovascular_diseases/global-hearts/GHI_Brochure.pdf?ua=1

Link to infographic on the Global Hearts Initiative [PDF]:

http://who.int/cardiovascular_diseases/global-hearts/HEARTS_Infographic.pdf?ua=1

Link to WHO page on MPOWER:

http://who.int/tobacco/mpower/en/