World Heart Day, 29 September
Important Days
The World Heart Day provides an opportunity for WHO and its Member States to join the global call to raise awareness about heart health and accelerate actions to prevent, detect and manage cardiovascular diseases. The WHO South-East Asia Region is home to a quarter of the world's population. The region is experiencing a very high burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are responsible for 3.9 million annual deaths, making up 30% of all deaths. Alarmingly, almost half (48%) of these CVD-related deaths occurred prematurely, affecting individuals aged 30 to 70 years and imposing significant socioeconomic burdens on families, communities, and countries. Main causes to the burden of CVD include modifiable lifestyle factors such as tobacco use, alcohol consumption, unhealthy diets especially high salt intake, and lack of physical activity. Raised blood pressure and raised blood glucose levels are key drivers and they can be detected, diagnosed, and managed adequately in primary care.
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