Pandemic calls for stepped-up action

by George Alleyne

Leading Barbados and Caribbean fighter against non-communicable diseases, Sir Trevor Hassell, last night said that the dangers Covid-19 poses to persons with NCDs mean the Heart and Stroke Foundation must protect at-risk Barbadians.

Noting that persons with heart disease are among NCD patients who are especially likely to suffer severe outcomes including massive organ damage if they contract Covid-19, the physician and cardiologist who led the Caribbean in battling such illnesses said it is the duty of the Foundation to step up to another level in protecting these people.

“We are in the midst of a Covid-19 pandemic and an NCD heart disease epidemic, one in which persons with NCDs and heart diseases are not being treated optimally,” he said while delivering opening remarks at a Foundation-organised lecture observing its 35th anniversary and World Heart Day.

The now retired former consultant physician and cardiologist, added, “those with NCDs and heart disease are at increased risk of having an adverse outcome from the pandemic. And persons who contract Covid-19 suffer specific heart abnormalities,” he said in the Walled Garden of the Barbados Museum and Historical Society.

“In this environment and period of increased vulnerability the Heart and Stroke Foundation has a responsibility to support its principle stakeholders, those who live with and are at risk from heart disease. More needs to be done to which the Heart and Stroke Foundation can and should contribute.”

He pointed to an editorial earlier this month in one of the world’s leading medical journals, the Lancet, that stated many of the tools required for fighting a pandemic are also those required to fight NCDs, namely disease surveillance, a strong civil society, robust public health, clear communication and equitable access to resilient universal health care systems.

“As the Heart and Stroke Foundation looks to the future there is first a need for the Foundation to invest much greater effort and energy than it has done thus far, in people living with heart conditions or stroke.

“These persons should be actively sought out and invited and encouraged to be members of the Foundation. They should be empowered through information and engagement, and thus provided with a platform so that their voices are heard,” said the former Adjunct Professor of Medicine at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus.

The George Alleyne Chronic Disease Research Centre has reported on a fast-growing incidence of Barbadians suffering heart attacks with a similarly increasing number of deaths.

The World Health Organisation has stated that one Barbadian dies from this NCD daily.

Now with the emergence of this pandemic the founder and former president of the Heart Foundation and former president of the Caribbean Cardiac Society said, “there is an urgent need in Barbados, and regionally, especially given the health and economic impacts of Covid-19, to identify business models aimed at creating economic value in a way that also advances social conditions for the advanced and enhanced prevention, treatment and rehabilitation for those with or at risk of having heart disease or stroke”.

In making the call to arms for the Foundation, Sir Trevor made it clear this in no way suggested that the organisation had not done much but the emergence of this deadly and still largely unknown virus called for a different level of action and advocacy.

He pointed out that among major achievements of the Foundation were establishment of  a cardiac disease, prevention and rehabilitation programme that was later expanded to include stroke rehabilitation; the emergency of a cardiac care programme; the part played by the organisation in passage of legislation banning smoking in public places; and the nationwide education and information programme so that a majority of Barbadians are aware of issues related to heart disease, prevention and control.
(GA)