KAMPALA – The Executive Director of Uganda Heart Institute Dr John Omagino has on October 2 revealed that Uganda will join the rest of the countries to celebrate World Heart Day this Friday.
While addressing the media at the Uganda Media Centre Dr Omagino said that the celebrations will take place at the Busoga square in Jinja District.
Under the theme ‘My Heart, Your Heart’, the celebrations will include activities like awareness heart walk, aerobics which will be geared towards helping the public have heart-healthy lifestyles.
“Cardiovascular disease is the world’s number one killer today. I’d like you to know, a cardiovascular disease which includes heart disease and stroke is responsible for 17.3 million premature deaths and this is expected to rise by 2030 to 23 million. Currently in Uganda, every 1 in 4 adults has high blood pressure,” he said.
Dr Omagino added that “It is a simple call to action to make your heart promise. A promise as an individual to cook and eat more healthily, to do more exercise.”
He advised parents to encourage their children to be more active, to say no to smoking and help their loved ones to stop.
“Together we’ve power to reduce the burden of, and premature deaths from cardiovascular disease, helping people everywhere to live longer better heart-healthy lives. We, therefore, ask you to make your heart promise, to eat more healthily, do exercises,” Dr Omagino urged.
According to a report by the Uganda Heart Association, cardiovascular diseases are second to infectious diseases in causing death in Africa, accounting to 11% of the total deaths.
“In 2012, about 18 million people died from cardiovascular diseases, representing 31% of all global deaths (WHO 2014). A heart attack is the second leading cause of death in Africa preceded by communicable diseases such as malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. The in-hospital mortality following heart attack is as high as 10%,” reads the report.
