DHAKA, Sept 28, 2021 (BSS) - The World Heart Day-2021 will be observed in
Bangladesh as elsewhere across the globe tomorrow with a view to raising
awareness about cardiovascular diseases.

  This year's campaign theme is "Use Heart to Connect" which focuses on an
urgent need to find various and innovative ways to connect people to heart
health, mainly in lower resource areas and communities.

  The goal of World Heart Day 2021 is to harness the power of digital health
to raise awareness, prevention, and management of cardiovascular disease
worldwide. Cardiovascular Diseases (CVDs) are the number one cause of death
globally.

  Transfat is one of the major causes for the increased risks of heart
diseases, and more frighteningly Bangladesh ranks among the 15 countries with
the highest number of heart disease deaths due to transfat.

   On the occasion of World Heart Day, Executive Director of PROGGA
(Knowledge for Progress), a research and advocacy organization organised a
webinar for building awareness to eliminate transfat, which is one of the
main reasons of heart diseases.

  Elimination of transfat is a the cost-effective initiative that will
contribute to reducing morbidity and death risks due to heart diseases as
well as help in achieving the SDG 3.4 related to NCDs, speakers said.

  In order to reduce risks of heart diseases in Bangladesh, PROGGA (Knowledge
for Progress) urges to speedily enact and implement policies following WHO
guidelines of limiting trans-fat to 2 per cent of total fat in all fats,
oils, and foods.

   According to the World Heart Federation, heart disease and strokes are the
world's leading causes of death, killing 17.1 million people annually.

  World heart day is celebrated across the world to reduce the number of
deaths because of cardiovascular diseases worldwide. It is an international
campaign to spread awareness among the common people to save them and
motivate them to live with a healthy heart.