Meet Nimiya Nimiya Ziwoya is a 40-year-old woman living in the rural district of Neno in Malawi. When Nimiya was seven months pregnant, she noticed that her legs were swollen and she was finding it difficult to breathe. She then went to the local hospital, where she was referred to Neno District Hospital, which is […]
Meet Beza Beza Tilahoun is 18 years old, and currently resides in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Two years ago, Beza began to experience unusual symptoms, “I started to get short of breath. At night, I started to have a hard time breathing. There were nights I just sat up all night.” Beza fainted at her home […]
Meet Dipesh Dipesh Rai is 17 years old and lives in central Nepal. When he was 14, he started experiencing severe headaches and fever, his feet felt numb, and “I felt my heart trembling.” His family took him first to a shaman, then to the closest hospital, which referred him to a hospital in Kathmandu. […]
Meet Kharsang Kharsang is 14 years old from rural Nepal and has been living with rheumatic heart disease (RHD) for several years. She used to feel regular joint pain and over time, her face and legs began to swell. After regular vomiting and difficulty breathing, Kharsang visited a health facility and was told she had […]
In June 2005, Debub University in Ethiopia published training materials for rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease management in Ethiopian health centers. These materials were developed in collaboration with the Ethiopia Public Health Training Initiative, The Carter Center, USAID, the Ethiopia Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH), and the Ethiopia Ministry of Education.
This RHD training manual was developed as a part of the Pacific Rheumatic Heart Disease Control Program (PRHDCP)'s country supported activities in the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Kiribati, and Fiji. The RHD workshop program is designed for health workers and other key people involved in the diagnosis of acute rheumatic fever (ARF) and rheumatic heart disease (RHD) in the Pacific region.
Developed in partnership by the World Heart Federation (WHF) and RhEACH, the TIPS Handbook was designed as a resource for implementers in low and middle-income countries interested in developing a rheumatic heart disease (RHD) control program. The Handbook includes sections on health systems and baseline components including funding, human resources, and program evaluation, and clinical guidelines for primary and secondary prevention and tertiary interventions.
This article traces the neglect of the international cardiovascular movement in addressing the needs of the very poorest and suggests ways we can learn from the trials and achievements of tuberculosis control.
This study used echocardiographic screening to test prevalence of rheumatic heart disease among schoolchildren in Cambodia and Mozambique, revealing case numbers 10 times higher than clinical case finding. These data have important implications for planning, prevention, and health service delivery.
This article emphasizes the need to include poverty-related risk factors in strategies to reduce the noncommunicable disease burden in sub-Saharan Africa, specifically focusing on cardiovascular diseases present in low-resource settings.
NCD Synergies
HEALTH EQUITY FOR THE POOREST BILLION
