Kenya
In 2018, Access Accelerated and the World Heart Federation partnered to fight cardiovascular diseases—the world’s number one killer —by strengthening cardiovascular health and care.
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the among the main causes of morbidity and mortality in Kenya. Twenty-five percent of hospital admissions are due to CVD and 13 percent of autopsies revealed CVDs as cause of death. Although hypertension is the main CVD risk factor, more than half of Kenyans have never been screened for this condition and 92 percent are not on treatment.
In 2018, Access Accelerated and the World Heart Federation partnered to fight CVDs—the world’s number one killer —by strengthening cardiovascular health and care.
Led by WHF and the Kenya Cardiac Society (KCS), in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, a one-year project began in 2019 to better understand the local barriers hindering implementation of the country’s national CVD guidelines and to implement solutions.
Objectives
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INCREASE GUIDELINE UPTAKE
Understand local barriers to implementing CVD national guidelines and implement solutions to train health care workers.
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BUILD ON PAST SUCCESS
Expanding work in Kenya to reach 20 additional counties between 2020-2022 and to develop e-health tools.
Milestones
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2018 – 2019
National Guideline Dissemination
In 2019, we disseminated the National CVD Guidelines in the five counties where the Ministry of Health is also piloting universal health coverage.
Between September and November 2019, 10 county-level dissemination workshops took place targeting a total of 300 health professionals drawn from health facilities across the 5 counties.
Additionally in 2019, we convened a successful 4th Global Summit on Circulatory Health on the theme of Innovations in Circulatory Care & Technologies. We also launched the Position Paper, “Improving Access to Essential Medicines for Circulatory Diseases: A Call to Action.”
Throughout 2019, we also continued data collection on the CVD policy landscape in 12 African countries. -
2020 – 2022
Expanding Reach & Catalyzing Action
In the coming years, WHF will continue its collaboration with KCS and the Ministry of Health and roll-out the CVD guidelines to 6-7 additional counties every year.
By March 2020, 300 health workers have conducted one-day sessions on the guidelines at their facilities, reaching an estimated 100 facilities. This equates to an estimated 2,000 health workers improving the care of an estimated 10,000 patients during the course of the project.
Working alongside partners on the ground, we’ll expand our reach to both patients and health workers. In addition to broadening the implementation of the CVD guidelines, we will introduce online and mobile educational tools, and community support elements. These efforts will not only ensure health workers have access to resources for longer and can refresh their knowledge at their own pace, but also give patients the support of both health professionals and their peers.
In partnership with the World Heart Federation, we are reforming rural health care in Kenya by training health workers to improve diagnosis and challenge misconceptions surrounding hypertension.