Pecohub Cardiologists on Monday warned that Nigeria and Africa are facing a growing epidemic of cardiovascular diseases, with new data showing that about four in ten Nigerian adults are hypertensive.
They stressed that Africa has the fastest-rising rate of cardiovascular diseases in the world, citing lifestyle changes, rising obesity, poor exercise habits, and weak public health systems as factors fuelling the crisis.
The warning comes ahead of the Nigerian Cardiac Society’s 54th annual general meeting and scientific conference, in Abuja, in partnership with the Pan-African Society of Cardiology.
The five-day event, themed “Cost-effective interventions to mitigate the burden of cardiovascular diseases in Africa,” runs from September 15–19 and brings together experts from across Nigeria, Africa, and the diaspora to address the growing crisis.
According to the World Health Organisation, CVDs are the number one cause of death globally, as more people die annually from CVDs than from any other cause. An estimated 17.7 million people died from CVDs in 2015, representing 31 per cent of all global deaths, and over three-quarters of CVD deaths take place in low- and middle-income countries.
Speaking, the President of NCS, Prof. Augustine Odili, who described cardiovascular diseases in Nigeria as alarming, stressed that urgent action is needed to prevent the growing burden.
“Seven years ago, we had a grant to look at the number of Nigerians who are hypertensive. We moved around the six geopolitical zones, and we measured their blood pressure, both at home and in the clinics. We found out that almost four out of every ten adult Nigerians are hypertensive, and this is alarming.
