By Leonard Kamugisha,
KAMPALA:
The Uganda Heart Institute (UHI) has revealed that over 16,000 out of 1.4 m babies born annually in Uganda have heart defects.
“Currently in Uganda, every 1 in 4 adults have high blood pressure. It is also estimated that in Uganda, of 1.6 million babies born every year,16,000 babies suffer from congenital heart disease. Half of this number (8,000) is severe enough to warrant intervention.” UHI report.
This was revealed by the institute’s Executive Director Dr. John Omangino, on Tuesday during a live broadcast in Kampala on heart and body health organized by Prudential Insurance and NBS TV for the 4th Edition of Omutima Gwo campaign. The campaign is the annual prudential heart awareness campaign which is intended to empower the community to avoid contracting cardiovascular-related diseases.
During the broadcast, Dr. Omagino said congenital heart defects are caused by factors that can be controlled and others that are yet to be determined.
He stressed that mothers of extreme ages especially those aged 45 years and young girls aged between 15 and16years are at higher risk of producing babies with heart defects.
He explains that the hormones of 16-year-olds are not yet stable while in 45 years the system becomes unstable.
“Besides the ones born with it, the other causes of heart disease are preventable. Together with our partners, we can prevent the heart disease by bridging the knowledge gaps,” says Dr. Omangino.
Dr. Omagino urged the public to always go for heart disease check ups noting that everyone can suffer the disease since its non-discriminatory on age.
“Heart disease is brutal, it affects the whole life cycle. One percent of babies born in any country has a heart disease. Whether you are an adult or young the heart disease affects you,” he said.
Furthermore, Dr. Omangino asked people to prioritize making physical exercises, he says people no longer do exercises putting their lives at a risk of acquiring heart related diseases.
“The body was designed to live up to 100 years but unfortunately people die premature deaths. People do not want to exercise. Gone are the days when we used to walk to see our friends, exercise at school. These acts must come back.” Dr. Omangino.
While giving his opening remarks,Paul Nagemi from PrudentialUG said that 4% of deaths in Uganda are heart related. “At prudential our purpose is to make sure that we provide affordable health choices to the people so as to reduce on these deaths.”
Arjun Malik, the CEO Prudential said the heart is a pertinent issue to people calling for interventions.
“With #OmutimaGwo, we focus on heart health because it is a pertinent issue and it is important that the public is equipped with the information they need on prevention, detection, treatment, and reversal of heart related diseases.”
“It is numbers such as these that show the magnitude of the need out there and made us take the decision to support our communities every year, with information and services to support their heart health.” Arjun added.
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