5 July 2011
RHD On The Global Health Agenda
A Focus on Children and Non-communicable Diseases, a report drawn up by the Children’s Working Group of the NCD Alliance provides recommendations for UN Member States to guarantee that the best interests of the child are key considerations in NCD policy formulation.
The report has a good focus on RHD and includes a case study of the World Heart Federation RHD program in the South Pacific. Special thanks to Children’s Heartlink and other NGOs involved in developing the content. The document was launched at the civil society hearings on NCDs held on June 16th: a media release is attached and the document can be found here.
At the the Informal Interactive Civil Society Hearing on Non-Communicable Diseases in Washington on 16 June, Dr. Bongani Mayosi championed inclusion of RHD and other endemic NCDs that affect the “Bottom Billion”, pointing out that they did not figure sufficiently in the discourse on NCDs and development. He emphasized the need to take a lifecourse approach to NCDs and to strengthen school and adolescent health services. To listen, go to the archived videos section of the UN website and advance to 2:39:00; he is very eloquent!
RHD meeting in Kampala (PASCAR) in May
An RHD meeting gathered the PanAfrican ASAP network at the PASCAR meeting in Kampala in May.
Post-graduate course on RHD in Geneva in June
The World Heart Federation collaborated with its member organization, Coeurs pour Tous (Hearts for All), to organize a day-long post-graduate course on Rheumatic Heart Disease on 21 June, 2012 as a part of the 7th Global Forum on Humanitarian Medicine in Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery held 20-22 June in Geneva. About 100 people attended the 7th GFHM, most of them involved in pediatric cardiac surgery in developing countries. Faculty of the post-grad course included people working in different collaborations on RHD affiliated with the World Heart Federation, and content included an overview of epidemiology, primary and secondary prevention, vaccine prospects, awareness and training and surgery. Krishna Kumar (India) animated an engaging panel discussion on practical constraints and opportunities in RHD prevention and control which included Porfirio Nordet, who shared Cuba’s success story, Andrew Steer (Australia), Liesl Zühlke (South Africa), Nigel Wilson (New Zealand), Joseph Mucumbitsi (Rwanda), Anita Saxena (India), Ed Kaplan (USA) and Daniel Sidi (France). And we collected lots of new names for the RHD database for sending RHDnews.
Special thanks to the Global Forum and Prof. Kalangos for making the course possible.
Good news from down under
New Zealand
In May, New Zealand announced that it had allocated $12 million to reduce rates of rheumatic fever. A more comprehensive article can be found here.
Special credits go to Māori Party co-leader and Associate Health Minister Tariana Turia for pushing this through, and the Heart Foundation of New Zealand and its Medical Director, Professor Norman Sharpe, for the effective advocacy!
New Zealand Guidelines and some great patient education materials in Samoan and Tongan are now on the RHDnet!
Australia
Andrew Steer gave an interview on RHD on Radio Australia in May.
June was an especially busy month for RHD Australia, which as usual has plenty going on.