Under the theme “Stroke Hits Hard”, the Ministry of Health and Prevention, MoHAP, represented by the Specialized Care Department, organized in collaboration the American University of Sharjah, AUS, and the American Heart Association an awareness event on the stroke and ways of prevention.
The event coincides with World Stroke Day which is observed on October 29 every year.
Held at the AUS’s Student Affairs Center in the presence of Dr. Mona Al Kuwari, Director of Specialized Care Department and ‘Heart Experts’ team, the event aims at raising awareness about the stroke and its risk factors.
A particular focus was made on the preventive aspects, skills needed to identify emergency cases and the rapid intervention to help prevent the occurrence of permanent disability.
Promoting Awareness to Reduce Disabilities Caused by Stroke
Dr. Mona Al Kuwari said: “The event comes in the wake of the success of the ‘Heart Experts’ program which was co-organized earlier this month by MoHAP and the National Ambulance. 18 students have been benefitted from the program after they have trained in the CPR and the rapid response in the event of heart and cerebral emergencies, in accordance with the guidelines and scientific evidence of the American Heart Association.”
“Our event today falls within MoHAP’s activities and programs to achieve the relevant national plan to reduce cardiovascular-related mortalities from 25% to 18.3% by the year 2021,” added Al Kuwari.
4 Awareness Platforms
four educational platforms were held, the first of which included the identification of stroke as a vascular emergency. Risk factors such as age, hypertension, cholesterol, diabetes, obesity, and unhealthy lifestyle were highlighted as contributors to stroke. The American Heart Association provided flyers on the steps to be followed in cases of cardiac and vascular emergencies.
While the second and third platforms capitalized on the importance of prevention and the early detection of impending signs. Intervening fast by calling emergency services was identified as the key to increasing survival rate and preventing subsequent disabilities.
The lectures have emphasized that stroke is preventable through daily health practices such as regular physical activity, adopting healthy lifestyles, reducing the consumption of foods with high-cholesterol and fats, smoking cessation, and inactivity. it also focused on the importance of periodic measurement of blood pressure.
Awareness about the national agenda and the cardiovascular index was also published in the fourth platform as part of a unified policy of the UAE vision that urges public awareness.
It is worth mentioning that according to the latest statistics of the World Health Organization, 15 million people in the world suffer from stroke annually, 5 million of them die while others suffer from permanent disability.