Dr Rajneesh Kapoor, Vice Chairman of Medanta Hospital India, addressed the launch of Heart Health Advocacy drive in Nepal at a press conference held on November 18 at Hotel Ambassador, Kathmandu. The drive, a first of its kind initiative, targets to help reduce heart disease burden in Nepal by the influence of well-trained heart health advocates. He said that reinforcement of healthcare awareness has a profound role in bringing change in public outlook and the strategy is to use it for the purpose of heart health awareness. The program is designed to train health enthusiast on matters of heart health and authorise them as centre points for heart patients in need. He highlighted, “Cardiovascular disease accounts for 18% of all deaths in Nepal and as much as 80% of them can be prevented with lifestyle changes and treating heart patients with use of latest technology.” Through the drive, people in Nepal can have faster and no cost access to latest information, virtual heart clinics, preventive healthcare strategies, community programs. It will be a collaboration of medical and non-medical people, working towards common objective of protecting heart health.
According to World Health organisation Cardio vascular disease accounts for 31% of all deaths globally, of these deaths 85% are from heart attack and stroke. Most cardiovascular diseases can be prevented by addressing behavioural risk factors such as tobacco use, unhealthy diet and obesity, physical inactivity and harmful use of alcohol using population-wide strategies.
