The World Heart Federation (WHF) is proud to stand with the international cardiovascular and FH communities in celebrating FH Awareness Day 2025.
Familial Hypercholesterolemia (FH) is widely recognized as one of the most common inherited disorders globally, yet it remains critically underdiagnosed and undertreated. Heterozygous FH affects approximately 1 in 311 people worldwide – around 25 million individuals – while homozygous FH, the more severe form, affects around 1 in 300’000 people. Left untreated, FH dramatically increases the risk of premature cardiovascular disease. As such, raising awareness, promoting early screening, and expanding access to effective treatment are essential to reducing its burden.
To improve early detection and outcomes, WHF urges governments and stakeholders to implement the 2020 Call to Action – Reducing the Clinical and Public Health Burden of Familial Hypercholesterolemia. Evidence-based and cost-effective strategies – such as combinations of newborn screening, universal child-parent screening, and cascade screening of close relatives – are essential to ensure timely diagnosis and access to life-saving treatment for people living with FH and their families.
The year 2025 presents a unique opportunity to advance the global noncommunicable disease agenda. Disappointingly, references to lipid conditions and lipid-lowering therapies were removed from the Fourth UN Political Declaration on NCDs during negotiations. Nonetheless, WHF views the Political Declaration as a baseline, not a ceiling, and will encourages countries to go further in addressing cardiovascular disease and FH. The post-UN High-Level Meeting agenda will provide a crucial moment to highlight gaps and advocate for stronger commitments.
In Europe, the forthcoming EU Cardiovascular Health Plan represents another key opportunity to embed FH within policy and practice. WHF will continue to support its Members and push for stronger recognition of FH and lipid disorders in both regional and global health frameworks.
Together, we can raise awareness of FH, close gaps in care, and move towards a future of cardiovascular health for everyone, everywhere.
WHF has developed a number of key materials and resources on raised cholesterol and familial hypercholesterolemia, including our WHF White Paper on Raised Cholesterol, Preliminary Analysis Report on the WHF & FH Europe Country Mapping Survey, WHF Roadmap for Cholesterol, WHF Cholesterol Advocacy Toolkit, and WHF Paper on Newborn Screening for HoFH.
If you are interested in learning more about our work on FH or supporting our action, please visit our FH webpage or contact info@worldheart.org.
