DUBAI--()--World Heart Federation, World Congress of Cardiology Scientific Sessions 2012 - April 23, 2012
Seventy patient and professional organisations from 39 countries united in Dubai this week at the World Heart Federation’s World Congress of Cardiology Scientific Sessions 2012. In an unprecedented worldwide call to action, the groups launched a global Patient Charter and supporting Sign Against Stroke in Atrial Fibrillation campaign to address atrial fibrillation (AF), an under-recognised but growing cardiovascular public health emergency that can increase the risk of stroke by 500 percent. The Charter offers strategies and more importantly solutions that could prevent millions of people across the Asia-Pacific region from dying or becoming disabled from a stroke caused by AF.
An increasing number of people in the Asia-Pacific region are living with AF. In China alone, up to eight million people suffer from AF, an abnormal heart rhythm and a major risk factor for stroke. AF causes the heart to beat irregularly, allowing blood to pool and create clots, which can travel to the brain and trigger a major and often fatal stroke.
In a global call to action, 70 patient organisations and medical societies from around the world are asking the general public, healthcare professionals and policy makers to work with them to drive action that will prevent serious and devastating AF-related strokes. People are being encouraged to show their support by visiting the campaign website, www.signagainststroke.com, and signing the Charter. Within 48 hours of launch over 2,000 people have expressed their support by signing the Global AF Patient Charter.
“Every year, millions of people in the Asia-Pacific region who suffer an AF-related stroke are left disabled,” said Professor Dr. Han Hwa Hu, President, Taiwan Stroke Association. “It is imperative that we all act together to improve the diagnosis and management of AF if we are to prevent the enormous life-changing consequences that AF-related stroke has for patients and carers. That is why we are asking people around the world to visit the website and sign the Charter.”
Atrial fibrillation has no geographic, gender or socio-economic boundaries and is responsible for approximately 20 percent of all strokes caused by blood clots.
Patient Charter Underscores Need for Immediate Action
In the Asia-Pacific region in 2004, the approximate number of patients who had survived a stroke at some point in their lifetime was 4.4 million in Southeast Asia, and 9.1 million in the Western Pacific region. In the same year, the number of first-ever strokes was 5.1 million across these regions. This was higher than the estimated number of new cases of cancer.
“AF-related strokes are more serious than those resulting from other causes,” said Professor Dr. Sim Kui-Hian, President, National Heart Association of Malaysia and President Elect, Asian Pacific Society of Cardiology. “However, the majority of AF-related strokes are preventable. The implementation of the recommendations in the Global AF Patient Charter will contribute to the prevention of stroke in patients with AF and, in turn, reduce the dramatically increasing clinical, economic, and social burden of stroke in Asia-Pacific.”
Crucially, AF-related strokes are more serious than those resulting from other causes. This means that people who do suffer an AF-related stroke are less likely to be able to return to their own homes and will need more care from their families or nursing homes. However, with more attention to education, diagnosis and treatment, the impact of these strokes on individuals themselves, the health system and society can be reduced.
AF-Related Strokes are Preventable…So Let´s Prevent Them
The Charter’s supporting campaign, Sign Against Stroke in Atrial Fibrillation, aims to gather signatures from around the world in support of the Global AF Patient Charter and its “five critical recommendations”:
1. Implement public information and education campaigns to raise awareness of the early signs of AF, the risk factors of stroke and the importance of pulse checks
2. Make AF-related stroke prevention and care a national healthcare priority
3. Implement widely accepted clinical guidelines on the treatment of AF and AF-related stroke at a national level
4. Enhance medical education and best practices in the healthcare workforce to improve prevention, detection and management of AF and AF-related stroke
5. Ensure technologies that improve prevention, diagnosis and treatment of people with AF or at risk of AF-related stroke are made appropriately available at the earliest opportunity
“Bayer HealthCare is proud to be supporting this campaign,” commented Dr. Flemming Ornskov, Head of General Medicine, Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals. “Improving patient outcomes is of utmost importance. However, it will require everybody to work together, patients, healthcare professionals, policy makers, non-governmental organisations and industry. None of us can achieve this alone.”
About The Global AF Patient Charter and Sign Against Stroke Campaign
The Global AF Patient Charter has been developed by a Steering Committee of organisations, including AntiCoagulation Europe, Arrhythmia Alliance, Atrial Fibrillation Association, Irish Heart Foundation, StopAfib.org and Stroke Alliance for Europe, in collaboration with 39 patient organisations from 20 countries.
The Global AF Patient Charter has been designed to bring a worldwide, unified voice to improving the treatment and care of individuals living with AF, and those at risk of AF-related stroke. It contains recommendations about critical actions that policy makers, healthcare providers, payers and national governments can take to save lives, reduce the burden of disease and the huge associated medical costs.
The Sign Against Stroke campaign aims to raise awareness of AF and the need to prevent AF-related stroke by encouraging all relevant stakeholders, including the general public, to visit, www.signagainststroke.com, and show their support by signing the Global AF Patient Charter. The goal of Sign Against Stroke is to gather 1.7 million signatures in support of the Charter – one for each of the estimated number of grandparents, mothers, fathers, aunts and uncles killed or disabled by AF strokes every year.
Bayer HealthCare supports the Global AF Patient Charter and Sign Against Stroke campaign.