Professor Samuel Kingue, Consultant Cardiologist, Executive President, Cameroon Cardiac Society, talks on cardiac challenges in the country today.

What explains the recurrent cases of cardiovascular accidents in the society today? Cardiovascular diseases are diseases that were formally unknown amongst our population. They were more common in Europe and America. Now that we are getting more aware of our health conditions, we are able to evaluate the prevalence of these diseases. It is evident that the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases in Cameroon is increasing. An example is hypertension which is the leading cause of cardiovascular failures.

The prevalence of hypertension amongst the adult population in Cameroon stands at 30 per cent. Considering the entire population of the country, about 6 million adults in the country are hypertensive and majority of them are not aware. Another frequent cardiovascular disease is diabetes with a prevalence rate of about 10 per cent. In children, there are congenial heart diseases and malformation of the heart that takes place during the formation of the foetus.

With urbanisation, the population is shifting towards the western way of life with our diet changing to more fatty food, salt, alcohol and tobacco consumption. These are habits that are not healthy. In addition, Cameroonians practice less exercise. We are getting to a stage where people are getting more obese thereby being exposed to cardiovascular diseases. Stress too can cause cardiovascular diseases.

What are the symptoms of cardiovascular diseases?    

In the case of hypertension, there are two types; that is hypertension without a cause and hypertension with a cause. 95 per cent of people are suffering from hypertension that does not have a cause while 5 per cent of those who are hypertensive have a medical cause. Hypertension without a cause starts gradually with the blood pressure increasing without anybody disorder. It is only when such a patient goes to the hospital for a check-up that it can be detected that the person is developing hypertension.

The second type of hypertension can be noticed when troubles appear such as headaches, dizziness, palpitation and difficulties in breathing. When this is experienced, it means the blood pressure is already very high and it is impairing the functioning of the inner organs such as the brain, heart and the kidney. The latter phase is that of complication when cardiovascular accidents appear such as heart and kidney failures.

Taking the case of diabetes, it is known that when one passes out urine all the time, is always thirsty; it means there is something wrong and that person needs to check his sugar level. Heart failure is manifested through difficulty in breathing, fatigue of the body and swelling of the abdomen.

How can these diseases be prevented and treated?

Our policy is to target three aspects of cardiovascular diseases. The first is health promotion by sensitising the population to adopt healthy lifestyles by changing their diet to less salty, less fatty food and alcohol. Also, people should regularly go for screening of their heart, sugar level, kidney functioning and cholesterol level. If there are signs of cardiovascular diseases, several doctors have been trained in many specialities such as cardiology, dialectology, neurology and the study of the lungs. The treatment will depend on the disease, it’s severity and complications.