The World Health Organization (WHO) published on Wednesday a new
pocket book aiming to help health workers identify people at risk
of heart diseases and prescribe the most appropriate treatment for
them.
The "Pocket Guidelines for Assessment and Management of
Cardiovascular Risk" can be carried and used by any health care
worker and is available in six languages, the UN agency said in a
statement.
The guide contains easy-to-use charts that can predict the risk
of a heart attack or a stroke and could help health workers to save
and improve the lives of people in all countries, the statement
said.
"This is a real breakthrough. Now, health care workers
everywhere can use a simple assessment and treatment tool to
prevent heart attacks and strokes," said WHO Director-General
Margaret Chan.
"Primary health care workers now have a new tool to assess and
manage people at risk of heart attacks and strokes. This brings
cardiovascular care to the places and people who need it most," she
added.
According to the WHO, this is the first cardiovascular disease
risk-prediction system that can be used worldwide and is also
specially designed for use with people everywhere, including in
low-resource settings.
It is an important innovation that will help health workers to
target limited health care resources at people who are at higher
risk of developing heart attacks and strokes.
These guidelines will be available in six languages and they
will be distributed to health workers in the form of pocket guides
that have been produced for each of the WHO regions. The pocket
guides are available in hard copy and on the WHO website.
To ensure that the pocket guide gets into the hands of the
health care workers who should use it, the WHO will be
collaborating with national Ministries of Health and health-focused
Non-Governmental-Organizations to organize "training of trainers"
workshops and distribution of the pocket guide.
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(Xinhua News Agency September 12, 2007)