Africa Knowledge Management Portal
Informing health decisions and actions
Cardiovascular disease prevention and control Translating evidence into action
Health Risk Environment
Other
Description
Every year, an estimated 17 million people die of cardiovascular disease (CVD) (1). Three fourths of these deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. In addition, at least one third of the world population is currently at high risk of developing major cardiovascular events; an estimated 1.3 billion due to tobacco use, 1 billion due to overweight and at least another billion due to elevated blood pressure, blood cholesterol and/or diabetes (1).