By Samwel Doe Ouma @samweldoe
Cardiovascular diseases affect one in every four Kenyans as undiagnosed and untreated hypertension, a major contributing risk factor for increased cardiovascular diseases, affects one in two Africans over the age of 25.
This is highest rate of any continent in the world Healthy Heart Africa Programme, has said. Healthy Heart Africa is AstraZeneca’s innovative programme that tackles hypertension and increasing burden of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in Africa. According to Ashling Mulvaney, Senior Director, Healthy Heart Africa (HHA) Programme, screening for hypertension and blood pressure should be part of routine cardiovascular care in Kenya.
“Non-communicable diseases are projected to be the most common cause of death in Africa by 2030 and for most middle and low-income earners; treatment of conditions such as hypertension is expensive. Healthy Heart Africa works very closely with the Ministry of Health and other partners, to not only drive awareness of the dangers of high blood pressure, but also provide affordable and high-quality medication to patients diagnosed with hypertension,” Ashling said.
HHA is working with local and global partners to raise awareness on lifestyle choice and cardiovascular diseases risk factors, train providers and drive care to lower levels of the healthcare system and facilitate access to low-cost but high quality branded anti-hypertensive drugs.
She also stressed HHA’s commitment to provide accessible hypertension care across Kenya in 2018 by widening its reach to 40 counties, up from the current 27 in Kenya. Latest data from Ministry of Health Stepwise survey 2015, the first nationwide survey on non-communicable diseases, revealed low awareness of heart health amongst Kenyans.
The survey found that 23.8 per cent of Kenyans had raised blood pressure, yet 56 per cent had never been screened for it. Since its launch in Kenya in 2014, HHA has conducted over 5.3 million blood pressure screenings in community and healthcare facilities and identified over 1 million people living with high blood pressure. It has also trained over 4,000 healthcare workers as well as activated over 660 healthcare facilities.
Recently HHA signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA) to have HHA’s medicines made available to participating public health facilities, which will enable broader access to treatment. AstraZeneca’s HHA was launched in collaboration with the Ministry of Health in a bid combat Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs). NCDs have been on the rise in Sub-Saharan Africa, partly due to lifestyle across age groups, posing a challenge to the already overstretched health facilities in Kenya.
According to Dr. Ephantus Maree, deputy Head of the Non-communicable Diseases Unit, Ministry of Health, Non- communicable diseases are yet to receive the attention they require yet they have surpassed communicable diseases in terms of morbidity and mortality rates.
“The partnership Ministry of Health has with Healthy Heart Africa has been a rich source of learning for us and uncountable gain for Kenyan citizens,” said Dr. Maree. Kenya’s Health Policy 2012-2030 calls for the halting and reversing of the rising burden of Non-Communicable Diseases.
HHA aspires to reach 10 million people with high blood pressure in Africa in support of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) global hypertension target of a 25 per cent reduction in the prevalence of raised blood pressure by 2025. Last year, HHA also entered into a partnership with the U.S.
President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to improve access to testing and treatment for people with hypertension and HIV/AIDS. Following a pilot programme in Western Kenya, the PEPFAR-HHA partnership is leveraging PEPFAR’s existing HIV infrastructure in HomaBay and Kisumu and working with the Kenyan Ministry of Health.
HHA expanded into Ethiopia in 2016 facilitated by the partnership formed with the national Federal Ministry of Health; this aimed to integrate HHA programming into the local healthcare system in support of the Government of Ethiopia’s National Strategic Action Plan for Non-Communicable Diseases.
The HHA partnership in Ethiopia is designed to provide the same elements that have been successful in Kenya while ensuring appropriate adaptation to meet the needs of the Ethiopian healthcare system by capitalising on the Government’s Health Extension Programme to bring care closer to the community.
