WHO / Yoshi Shimizu
A WHO field staff talks to a woman fetching water from a water catchment tank in Kiribati.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in Viet Nam

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are caused by disorders of the heart and blood vessels. CVDs include coronary heart disease (heart attacks), cerebrovascular disease (stroke), raised blood pressure (hypertension), peripheral artery disease, rheumatic heart disease, congenital heart disease and heart failure. The major causes of CVDs are tobacco use, physical inactivity, unhealthy diet and harmful use of alcohol. Therefore, most CVDs can be prevented by addressing these behavioural risk factors.

However, currently CVDs are the number one cause of death globally, representing 31% of all deaths. In Viet Nam, CVDs were responsible for 31% of total deaths in 2016 – equivalent to more than 170 000.

Support from WHO for CVDs specifically focuses on tobacco control, salt consumption reduction and management of hypertension and diabetes at commune health stations.

Technical links

Viet Nam CVD mortality and morbidity

In Viet Nam, cardiovascular diseases were responsible for 31% of all deaths in 2016. The prevalence of hypertension among adults 18-69 years is 18.9%, according to Viet Nam STEPWise approach to Surveillance (STEPS) 2015; only 13.6% of hypertensive patients were reported to be managed at a health facility.

CVD detection and management

People with cardiovascular disease or who are at high cardiovascular risk (due to the presence of one or more risk factors, such as hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidaemia or already established disease) need early detection and management using counselling and medicines, as appropriate.

CVD prevention

Most cardiovascular diseases can be prevented by addressing behavioural risk factors such as tobacco use, unhealthy diet and obesity, physical inactivity and harmful use of alcohol using population-wide strategies.

CVD global mortality

CVDs are the number 1 cause of death globally. More people die annually from CVDs than from any other cause. An estimated 17.9 million people died from CVDs in 2016, representing 31% of all global deaths. Of these deaths, 85% were due to heart attack and stroke.