{"id":3079,"date":"2020-07-21T11:45:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-21T10:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world-heart-federation.org\/news\/understanding-the-covid-19-heart-connection-in-low-resource-settings\/"},"modified":"2022-08-15T12:41:57","modified_gmt":"2022-08-15T10:41:57","slug":"understanding-the-covid-19-heart-connection-in-low-resource-settings","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/world-heart-federation.org\/news\/understanding-the-covid-19-heart-connection-in-low-resource-settings\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding the COVID-19 heart connection in low-resource settings"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article is based on a <\/em>paper<\/em><\/a> published in Global Heart and developed through consensus by an international group of specialists, including <\/em>WHF Emerging Leaders<\/em><\/a> and members of the <\/em>WHF Science Committee<\/em><\/a>. The document aims to support WHF Members, especially those working in low-resource settings. By summarizing links between cardiovascular disease and illnesses impacting the cardiovascular system, it presents practical recommendations and may be considered a support tool for decision-making while also encouraging further research on the topic. The article is neither a clinical guideline nor a substitute for national guidelines and recommendations.<\/em><\/p>\n

The current pandemic has put the spotlight not only on heart care but also on the particular challenges faced in low to middle-income countries: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), or COVID-19, continues to claim lives in ways as diverse as the patient complications observed. The healthcare community has found itself on the frontlines of a new disease that affects and exacerbates existing conditions in those with different forms of cardiovascular disease (CVD) or with other diseases that put the heart at risk. Individuals with established CVD are more susceptible to severe COVID-19. Added to this are the challenges of delivering care in settings where critically needed medical supplies and equipment might be hard to come by. Even some high-income countries have struggled to implement rapid response and the strain is greater for countries with less solid infrastructure and fewer means to procure needed machinery and medicine.<\/p>\n

In non-COVID-19 times, diseases affecting the heart present their own set of complications and challenges so the emerging trend of heart patients being particularly at risk from the new coronavirus is one the medical community has been hard at work to understand and manage. Diseases affecting some form of heart condition or heart function are all involved: hypertension and diabetes, acute coronary syndrome, injury to muscle tissues of the heart, (myocardial injury), heart failure, and less heard of but prevalent diseases such as rheumatic heart disease and Chagas disease. The value of knowledge-sharing cannot be overestimated and there are general as well as disease-specific measures that can be taken, even in resource-challenged settings. For example, some overarching recommendations are that:<\/p>\n