JKCI steps up awareness campaign in battle against heart diseases
DAR ES SALAAM: AHEAD of the World Heart Day (WHD) tomorrow, the Tanzania Cardiac Society (TCS), in partnership with the Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Institute (JKCI) has organised social and medical activities in order to raise awareness about the disease.
Speaking to journalists on Wednesday, the TCS President, Dr Robert Mvungi said together they have organised a two-day medical camp which will be held at JKCI Dar Group, as well as a ‘health walk’ in order to create awareness and a sense of commitment in battling heart diseases.
“The health walk will be held on Friday (tomorrow) and will start at Uhuru Stadium in Temeke Chang’ombe and end at JKCI Dar Group premises in the Tazara area.
“We also encourage jogging clubs to participate, especially those in the Temeke neighbourhood so that we can unite in our fight against cardiac diseases,” he said.
He further noted that the focus is to educate, inspire and motivate people to keep their hearts healthy and encourage them to be informed and motivated for change.
Speaking about the WHD, he said that it is an important annual event marked every September 29th by organising various activities and events to raise awareness about heart disease and its preventive measures to manage cardiac diseases.
According to him, the events mainly focus on conducting checkups, educating people about the signs and symptoms of cardiovascular disease for them to avoid any further complications.
It also focusses to encourage people to adopt a healthy lifestyle to prevent and control any heart-related ailments.
The JKCI Director, Dr Peter Kisenge, noted that WHD is part of international campaigns aimed at creating and spreading awareness on cardiac diseases, saying that the diseases constitute half of all non-communicable diseases (NCDS) and is ranked as the world’s number one killer as it kills over 20 million people in the world per year.
He said the sixth-phase government has invested significantly in bringing effective equipment and expert doctors, so this is an opportunity for citizens to come out in large numbers to get that service because about 80 per cent of premature heart-related deaths could be prevented.
“When you come early, we can serve you early and reduce the government’s medical expenses,” he said.
