By Dr Catharina Boehme, Officer-in-Charge, WHO South-East Asia
Every minute eight people die due to cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) in the WHO South-East Asia Region. CVDs are a leading cause of deaths in the Region, half of them premature, in people below 70 years of age.
World Heart Day, being marked this year with the theme ‘Don’t Miss a Beat’, is an opportunity for Member States, WHO, and stakeholders to renew our shared goal to reduce preventable and premature deaths from cardiovascular diseases (CVDs).
Today, we also mark two years since our Region adopted the resolution ‘SEAHEARTS: Accelerating Prevention and Control of Cardiovascular Diseases in the South-East Asia Region’. The resolution is a regional commitment to address the growing burden of CVDs.
Major risk factors for CVDs include hypertension, diabetes, tobacco use, alcohol consumption, unhealthy diets high in salt and fats, and physical inactivity. As many as 85% of people living with hypertension and diabetes in the region do not have their conditions under control. Coupled with ageing populations and increasing urbanization, the vulnerability to CVDs is increasing, putting pressure on health systems that are already resource constrained.
The SEAHEARTS resolution commits to placing 100 million people with hypertension and/or diabetes on protocol-based management by 2025, and accelerating efforts for tobacco control, salt reduction, and the elimination of trans-fatty acids from food chain.
Over the past two years, policy measures and clinical interventions by our Member States have shown encouraging progress. As of June 2025, public health facilities are providing protocol-based management to over 90 million people with hypertension and diabetes. Legislation to protect more than 1.7 billion people from industrially produced trans-fatty acids has been enacted across the Region. More than 103 million people are covered by at least three WHO MPOWER tobacco control measures. Political will and coordinated action are among key factors for the success.
Nonetheless, major challenges remain. Progress is compromised by commercial determinants of health, inadequate fiscal and regulatory measures, weak enforcement of policies, and poor monitoring of the marketing, packaging and advertising bans on unhealthy commodities. Public awareness of risk factors remains low. Many of our Member countries lack adequate laboratory and enforcement capacity to implement legislative actions on trans-fatty acids in food items, reduce sodium content in commonly consumed foods, and test tobacco products for harmful contents and emissions.
The delivery of quality care continues to be impacted by limited budget allocation to noncommunicable disease programmes, shortage of trained health workforce, and gaps in access to essential diagnostic tools and essential medicines at the primary care level.
Turning the tide requires collective efforts of governments, civil society, academia, the private sector, and communities. This whole-of-society approach is essential as no single actor can address CVDs in isolation.
For individuals, quitting tobacco, reducing salt intake, daily physical activity, and managing stress are important steps for a healthy heart. For governments and policymakers, implementing salt-reduction measures, eliminating industrially produced trans-fats from national food supplies, and enforcing comprehensive tobacco control laws should be among their top priorities.
Primary health care must remain the frontline approach for heart health. This requires improving the availability of protocol-based medicines and essential health technologies, strengthening urban health systems, and engaging private health sector to deal with CVDs. Health information systems can be leveraged to track patients, improve treatment adherence, and monitor outcomes. Task-sharing, training in CVD management, and strengthening referral pathways will save countless precious lives.
On World Heart Day 2025, please join me in committing to make every heartbeat count. Every measure and every effort matters, and together let us protect each and every heart.