Africa Knowledge Management Portal
Informing health decisions and actions
Global Atlas on cardiovascular disease prevention and control
Global Health Security Capacities
Non-communicable diseases and risk factors
Description
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) remain the biggest cause of death worldwide. More than 17 million people died from CVDs in 2008. More than 3 million of these deaths occurred before the age of 60 and could have largely been prevented. The percentage of premature deaths from CVDs ranges from 4% in high-income countries to 42% in low-income countries, leading to growing inequalities in the occurrence and outcome of CVDs between countries and populations.