Cardiovascular Disease: Global Health Challenges and Policies

This report analyzes the policy brief on global health issues of cardiovascular disease and provides strategies and recommendations for reducing its impact. It discusses the current policies, describes the public health issue, and highlights the need for stronger governance and affordable healthcare.

Running head: HEALTHCARE
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Introduction
Cardiovascular diseases have been recorded as one of the main reasons of high rate of
death through out the world. This comprises of more than 12.7% of the death rates per country as
per the statistics by the WHO. Over the last decades, the government each and every country and
the United Nations have been taking some of the major preventive steps and action towards the
reduction of this global health disease (Prince et al. 2015). Though the mortality rates from the
cardiovascular disorders have dropped, there still lies some threats towards decreasing and
abolishing the root cause of the disease due to the rising levels of diabetes, obesity and the lack
of the adherence towards the recommended treatments. The report is a health assessment study
targeting the analyzing of the policy brief regarding the global health issues of the cardiovascular
disease that has been contributing to a larger share towards the death rates through it the globe.
The report explains and identifies the current ongoing and implemented policies regarding the
targeted health issues together with the strategies and the recommendations for addressing
further progress in reduction of the health challenge.
Defining and describing the public health issue
CVD or the cardio vascular disease are the global health challenges that are related to the
blood vessels and the heart of the human body. These includes a wide range of diseases and
challenges including the cardiomyopathy, peripheral vascular disease, congenital heart disease
and stroke, which are mostly prevalent in the developing and the under developed countries of
the globe (Mozaffarian 2016). Cardio vascular disease refers to the conditions that includes the
blockage or the narrowness of the vessels of the blood within the human biological system that

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leads to heart attacks, angina or chest pain and strokes. This heath challenge have different
symptoms from men and women. In case of male, these disease have more likely impacts of
chest pain. Women have the most tendency to have other symptoms like chest discomfort, breath
shortness, nausea and some of the extreme rate of fatigue. Symptoms of the cardio vascular
disease includes shortness of breath, pain, coldness around the arms, neck due to the narrowness
of the blood vessels. The pain and the discomfort ion chest and discomfort in abdomen and neck.
According to World Health Organization. (2019) the cardio vascular disease refers to the
problems of the heart and the blood vessels and is often used towards the meaning of the damage
of the blood vessels and the heart by the challenge of atherosclerosis.
Cardio vascular diseases takes the lives of more than 18 million people each and every
year targeting 31% of all the death through out the globe. The trigger to the disease that
manifests the fundamental factors as the strokes and the heart attacks are mainly the use of the
tobacco, lack of proper physical activity, unhealthy diet plan and the harmful usage of alcohol;
and other drugs (Braun et al. 2016). As per the statistics, the cardio vascular disease includes the
coronary heart disease, the rheumatic heart disease and some of the other categories of heart
disease which tends to demonstrate the pressure of the raised blood, lipids and glucose targeting
obesity and overweight. According to the reports by the World Health Organization, the cardio
vascular disease has been a major developmental issue or challenge within the low and the
middle income countries.

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Figure - Statistics of world
Source - (World Health Organization. 2019)
The figure above illustrates the total number of deaths caused due to cardio vascular
disease through out the world. People residing in the developing and the under developed or the
low or the middle-income countries often lacks the primary benefits of the integrated primary
heath care programs for the treatment and the early detection of the risk factors that are
compared to the people in the high income countries. Furthermore people belonging from the
low and the middle income countries suffer form cardio vascular disease and some of the other
non-communicable diseases targeting less access towards the equitable and effective services of
the health care (Prince et al. 2015) . Furthermore the communities and the poorest people
belonging to the world population are affected the most. In the level of the household, there lies
sufficient level of evidences targeting the fact that non communicable disease and the cardio
vascular disease contributes to the large scale of poverty caused due to the catastrophic spending
of the health and the out of pocket spending or expenditure. In the context of the macro

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economic level. The cardio vascular disease places a heavy burden over the economies related to
the middle and the low income countries.
Evaluation of the existing policies
The current and the existing policy that has resulted in some of the major decrease in the
mortality rate is the approach by the World Health Organization, namely the “Global Hearts”.
The new and the innovative approach by the United Nations in the dare of 22 September , 2016
was being launched for tackling the cardiovascular disease which has been proven to the globe’s
number one reason for death.
Partnering with the regulations of the UN general Assembly, the policy aimed to fight the
global threat of the cardio vascular disease that includes strokes, heart attacks forming the
world’s leading cause of the death (Moreira et al. 2015). The policy aims to be the part of the
new and the innovative effort for scaling up the control and the prevention of the cardio vascular
disease by the means of three of the major technical packages. These includes the shake, the
hearts and the MPower.
Shake has been the new set of the evidence based options of the policy and the examples
for supporting of the government towards the lowering of the salt consumption among the
population. According the approaches of the policy, Shake could reduce the burden of the
cardiovascular disease .
The technical package namely, the Hearts of the policy initiates the country by the tools
for the incorporation of the management of the cardiovascular diseases at the primary level for
the reduction of the factors such as the high blood pressure, cholesterol and more (Mozaffarian et
al. 2016).

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MPower is the ultimate set of the six of the major affordable, practical and the achievable
measurements for helping the countries for the implementation of the specific provisions
regrading the WHO convention of the framework regrading the control of the Tobacco.
On the basis of the global hearts technical packages, the policy initiated the partnership
with the government for the implementation and the scale up of the intervention regrading the
strategies for the reduction of the blood pressure, and the prevention of the strokes and the heart
attacks. The policy targeted some of the major specific activities (Arena et al. 2015). These are
the effective establishment and the demonstration of the sites in the countries, the development
of the salt reduction and the tobacco control plans and building of the capacities regrading the
health and the other providers. Though this policy by the international government aimed
towards the well fare and the benefit of the world specifically the population suffering from high
risk of the cardio vascular disease, this policy was not rolled out and implemented to many of the
middle and the low income countries of the world including India, Sri Lanka, Uganda , Nepal
and more.
Strategies and recommendation
The high rate and the burden of the cardio vascular disease generally reflects the
inadequate prevention and the weak system of the health. According to Braun et al (2016) nearly
81% of the strokes and the challenges arising from the cardio vascular diseases can be prevented.
This needs modification, improvement of the current policies and the guidelines related to the
cardiovascular diseases. Furthermore effective recommendations and strategies are some of the
factor that needs to be maintained

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Figure – Strategies, prevention and aims
Source – (Searo.who.int. 2019)
From the perspective of the strategies and the improvement of the existing legislative
framework targeting the abolition of the cardio vascular disease, three of the most common
pathways that can be recommended as the strategic action are as follows.
These are the population wide approaches for the reduction of the stoke risk factors, the
early detection of the high risk individuals with some of the major metabolic conditions and the
management if the stroke and the cardio patients for the prevention of the deaths and the
reduction of the impact of the challenges of the cardio vascular diseases (Thurston et al. 2017).
The figure above highlights the strategies towards the prevention of the disease and the results of
the disease.
One of the recommended good approach towards the cardio prevention can be the
effective implementation of the package essential of WHO regrading the essential interventions
for the cardio vascular disease in the low resource settings promoting the risk based management
regrading the hypertension and the diabetes as the level of the primary health care.

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Some of the furthermore strategies and recommendation includes the complementing of the
primary health care level with the reliable sources regarding the acute and the long term care of
the stroke. The WHO policy should revise regarding the multidisciplinary teams that are
consisting of the nursing, the medical, the physiotherapy and the social working through the
means of the recovery goals of the patient. The policy should furthermore be implemented in the
low and the middle income countries including the chance for the diagnostic tests for dissolving
and treatment of clots for immunizing some of the greatest chances of recovery (Brush et al.
2015). Some of the countries like the Asia, South Africa needs to undertake some of the decisive
steps for the reduction of the burden of the stroke and for the comprehensive tackling of the
prevention at the population level. Two of the major policy recommendations are the education
and the prevention of the challenges raising from the cardio vascular disease and the
strengthening of the health systems for the prevention of the stroke and the management.
Figure - Policy planning for the government performances
Source - (Oecd.org. 2019)
The figure above illustrates the need for the stronger strategies and the governance for the
promotion of the integrated care across the clinical pathways. This will include the effective

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operation and the seamless interactions in various of the health systems including the prevention,
the coprimary care and the patient involvement. Furthermore, response capabilities and the
public awareness is one of the recommended approach followed by access towards the special
treatments and the care by the government hospitals at a affordable price. One of the most
effective recommendation is the factor of the affordable health care which the previous policy
has not stated. In the context of the low and the middle income countries (Heindel et al. 2016).
Affordable health care system and access is essential for the encouragement of all the people to
come forward with their cardio vascular heath symptoms. In the consideration of the
recommended improvements, the capacity of the human resource development is one of the
critical component for the improvement of the stroke issues and challenges for the effective
management. The diagnostic capabilities that includes the neuro imaging through the MRI and
CT scan, the vascular angiogram facilities are somewhat necessary for expansion for the
effective benefit of the population in the world.
Conclusion
This it can be explained from the above discussion that though the mortality rates from
the cardiovascular disorders have dropped, there still lies some threats towards decreasing and
abolishing the root cause of the disease due to the rising levels of diabetes, obesity and the lack
of the adherence towards the recommended treatments. People residing in the developing and the
under developed or the low or the middle-income countries often lacks the primary benefits of
the integrated primary heath care programs for the treatment and the early detection of the risk
factors that are compared to the people in the high income countries. Though the previous policy
by the international government aimed towards the well fare and the benefit of the world
specifically the population suffering from high risk of the cardio vascular disease, this policy was

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not rolled out and implemented to many of the middle and the low income countries of the world
including India, Sri Lanka, Uganda , Nepal and more. The report highlighted some of the major
recommended measures and strategies for the improvement and the effective implementation of
the policy regrading the control of the cardiovascular disease and its effects.

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