First Lady Margaret Kenyatta has opened a two-day heart management conference with an aim to address challenges that heart disease pose in Africa.
The conference dubbed, Africa STEMI Live 2018 held in Nairobi, will engage all health players involved in the prevention and treatment of patients suffering from acute coronary syndromes.
The two day conference is being attended by about 300 practitioners drawn from Africa, Middle East, America and Europe.
At the conference, the unique challenges that Africa faces in treating cardiovascular diseases will be broadly discussed on.
The First lady in her opening speech on Friday evening said she is optimistic that from the Conference, there will be strategies to help advance the country in tackling cardiovascular diseases.
“I thank Africa STEMI for this important conference that has successfully brought together professionals with diverse expertise to come up with a joint vision to tackle cardiovascular diseases,” the First lady said.
She said in the effort to outshine the challenges dogging cardiovascular treatment, there needs to be more investment in research, knowledge, access to information critical to addressing cardiovascular diseases.
Mrs. Kenyatta added that scores of Kenyans have fallen victims of cardiovascular diseases due to lack of information citing Hypertension as the widespread cardiovascular disease affecting many Kenyans.
“We have heard that Hypertension is the most common cardiovascular disease caused by lifestyle habits. Unfortunately, our youth, who are our future working generation, have been increasingly affected,” she stated.
However, she commended the Health Ministry for training community workers across the country on how to combat rise of cardiovascular diseases.
She said that, “The National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) has integrated cardiovascular care, as an outpatient service in prevention and detection of hypertension to shield patients, and their families form a cascade of financial challenges that result from this disease.”
Chief Administrative Secretary Dr Rashid Aman said the ministry is said a universal healthcare cover is being rolled out to guarantee Kenyan suffering from cardiovascular diseases quality health care.
“We are in similar resolve as a ministry equipping sentinel county health facilities with state of the art diagnostic and treatment infrastructure to allow the devolution of cardiac and other non-communicable diseases care closer to the people and at an affordable price,” Dr Aman noted.
Heart Attack Concern Kenya Chairperson Dr Robert Mathenge said though cardiovascular disease predominantly a lifestyle disease, information to the public on how to prevent it is critical.
He added living a healthy lifestyle is one of the ways which can help in lowering the risk of getting a cardiovascular disease.