Healthy Heart Africa
The program is committed to tackling hypertension and the increasing burden of cardiovascular disease, with the ambition to reach 10 million people with elevated blood pressure across Africa by 2025.
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Objectives
- Increasing awareness of the symptoms and risks of hypertension.
- Training providers and driving care to the lower levels of the healthcare system.
- Offering health education, screening, and reduced-cost treatment and control, as applicable.
There were approximately 130 million adults with high blood pressure in sub-Saharan Africa in 2000 and this figure is expected to rise to 216.8 million by 2030*. The nature of NCDs and their risk factors call for multi-sector involvement in prevention and control measures**. Yet, there is a lack of evidence of successful implementation of NCD interventions within the primary care setting in African countries.
Healthy Heart Africa (HHA)’s public/private partnership model integrates AstraZeneca’s approach to fighting hypertension into existing health platforms in African countries. The company partners with local stakeholders, including public, private and faith-based facilities, to integrate blood pressure screening and hypertension treatment into routine care, ultimately developing interventions that are optimised to address local challenges on a sustainable basis.
HHA was launched in Kenya in October 2014 in collaboration with the Ministry of Health (MOH) and in support of its commitment to combat NCDs in line with the Kenya National Strategy for the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases, 2015-2020. AstraZeneca launched five different demonstration projects and tested different models to inform future scale-up both within Kenya and across the region more broadly.
In 2016, AstraZeneca and PEPFAR partnered to use hypertension as a stigma-free entry point to find and reach those who need HIV services by integrating hypertension services into existing HIV platforms. It expanded access to HIV/AIDS and hypertension services by offering them in an integrated manner at existing PEPFAR-supported HIV/AIDS sites.
*Dzudie A, et al. Roadmap to achieve 25% hypertension control in Africa by 2025. Cardiovasc J Afr. 2017;28(4):262-272. https://globalheartjournal.com/articles/10.1016/j.gheart.2017.06.001
**Steven van de Vijver et al. Status report on hypertension in Africa – Consultative review for the 6th Session of the African Union Conference of Ministers of Health on NCD’s. Pan African Medical Journal. 2013;16:38. [doi: 10.11604/pamj.2013.16.38.3100]
Results and milestones
- Since launching in Kenya in 2014, the HHA program has expanded to Ethiopia in 2016, Tanzania in 2018, Ghana in 2019, Uganda in 2020 and Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal and Rwanda in 2021, and Nigeria and Zanzibar in 2022.
- Since its inception, HHA has conducted over 38.5 million blood pressure screenings and activated over 1.300 healthcare facilities in Africa to provide hypertension services, and facilitate access to low cost, high-quality branded antihypertensive medicines (AstraZeneca data on file as at end June 2023).
- The HHA program has also trained over 10.600 healthcare workers, including doctors, nurses, community health volunteers and pharmacists to provide education and awareness, screening, and treatment services for hypertension.
- In 2023, the program expanded to 10 new HHA Grant Countries in partnership with ACHAP and PATH. These partners will implement and manage the program expansion to five countries each over two years 2023 and 2024, with targeted interventions in hypertension care and management. The planned expansion will be to Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, The Gambia, Madagascar, Malawi, Morocco, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Geographic Reach
- Africa
Disease Area
- Non-communicable diseases
Partner organizations
Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB)
Uganda Protestant Bureau (UPB)
African Christian Health Association Platform (ACHAP)
Health Improvement Project Zanzibar (HIPZ)
Ethiopian Ministry of Health
Ghana Health Service (GHS)
Ministry of Health Kenya
Rwanda Biomedical Center
Ministry of Health Rwanda
Ministry of Education Senegal
Ministry of Health Tanzania
Ministry of Health Uganda
National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) Nigeria
Ministry of Health Zanzibar
Nigeria
US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)
PATH
Population Services International (PSI)
Geographic Reach
Africa
- Côte d'Ivoire
- Ethiopia
- Ghana
- Kenya
- Nigeria
- Rwanda
- Senegal
- Uganda
- United Republic of Tanzania
Disease Area
Non-communicable diseases
- Cardiovascular diseases
- Hypertension