AstraZeneca’s Healthy Heart Africa Programme Set To Expand To 10 More Countries In Africa

i Hypertension, commonly known as high blood pressure, is the most important modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular diseases.

iiiHHA contributes to strengthening health systems by working in partnership with local stakeholders to provide services such as free blood pressure screening, creating education and awareness about cardiovascular diseases and their risk factors, providing blood pressure screening equipment and training healthcare workers on guidelines to improve the quality of care.

Since 2014, the programme has conducted over 30.5 million blood pressure screenings and trained more than 9,900 healthcare workers.Commenting on the planned expansion, Ashling Mulvaney, Vice President, Global Sustainability, Access to Healthcare, AstraZeneca said: “We believe in leveraging the power of partnerships to provide equitable and affordable access to life-changing treatments for people, especially in low and middle-income countries (LMICs).

I am delighted that the programme has been recognised once again by the 2022 Access to Medicine Index, as a Best Practice for its role in contributing to access to affordable healthcare in Africa.”The planned expansion will be to Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, The Gambia, Madagascar, Malawi, Morocco, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Zambia, and Zimbabwe – inpartnership with the Africa Christian Health Associations Platform (ACHAP) and PATH, who will implement and manage the programme expansion to five countries each over the next two years.

Because the programme integrates into existing healthcare systems to provide blood pressure screening and other related services, we are able to boost preventive healthcare for hypertension.

Through community-based interventions and routine screening for blood pressure for all who walk through the activated facilities, we are able to identify cases of elevated blood pressure and refer them for diagnosis.

Integrated services as part of strong Primary Health Care systems are the way forward to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and Universal Health Coverage.” said Helen McGuire, Global Programme Leader, Non-Communicable Diseases at PATH. The expansion will contribute to HHA’s ambition to reach 10 million people with elevated blood pressure across Africa by 2025iv.