Cardiovascular diseases are the biggest cause of death in the world and India. It is for that reason that September 29 is marked as World Heart Day. The day hopes to promote awareness about the risks of heart diseases and how to prevent them. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, patients with cardiovascular issues have faced an even greater risk of developing severe infections due to their co-morbidities.
History
Heart diseases have been one of the leading causes of mortality globally for decades. In 1999, the World Heart Federation (WHF) in association with the World Health Organization (WHO) decided to mark World Heart Day on the last Sunday of September. The first World Heart Day was observed in 2000.
In 2012, world leaders committed to reducing the global burden of deaths from non-communicable diseases, like heart conditions, diabetes, asthma, cancer and stroke, by 25 percent. As part of this drive, global stakeholders pushed for the greater importance of World Heart Day as cardiovascular diseases account for nearly half of all deaths from non-communicable diseases in a year. Since then, World Heart Day has been observed on September 29 with more than 90 countries participating in the event.
Significance
Nearly 1.9 crore people die from various heart conditions each year. Of these, 25.66 lakh deaths were in India alone. But a vast majority of these deaths from heart diseases are completely preventable or can be delayed significantly through timely lifestyle and medical intervention. In its recent report titled ‘Invisible numbers – the true scale of non-communicable diseases’, the global health body stated that 86 percent of the deaths from heart diseases could be prevented.
Theme
The theme for World Heart Day 2022 is ‘Use Heart For Every Heart’, which focuses on encouraging individuals to make healthy and right decisions to improve their cardiovascular health. The theme highlights the benefits that such actions would have on society as a whole, nature and the patients themselves.
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(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)
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