Foundation raises alarm on increasing heart disease cases in SA

As September marks Heart Awareness Month, the Heart and Stroke Foundation South Africa is raising the alarm on increasing cases of heart disease. 

Statistics South Africa in 2020 highlighted mortality trends, indicating that heart disease was marked in the top 10 leading natural causes of death in the country.

Health Risk Assessment Programme Team Lead at the foundation, Juandre Watson, says it seems like the South African public does not fully understand the complexity of heart disease.

“Now if you looking at stats, you would know that SA is still facing a crisis of cardiovascular disease burden and if we looking at the 2020 stats which is most recent for SA, it highlighted mortality trends indicating that diabetes, hypertension, heart disease were marked in the top 10 leading causes of deaths in SA, adding up to 17% of deaths in 2020. So our aim is to raise awareness.” 

PODCAST | The Heart and Stroke Foundation highlights SA’s increasing cases of heart disease: 

Hypertension 

Research indicates that in South Africa, more than one in three adults live with high blood pressure.

Hypertension is said to be responsible for one in every two strokes.

There is also a direct link between high blood pressure and heart attacks.

The disease is called the “silent killer” because there are rarely any symptoms or visible warning signs.

Cardiologist Dr Martin Mpe outlines hypertension and ways to manage it: