Experts, in a new report, have said more research and monitoring of air pollution is desperately needed throughout Africa in order to prevent heart attacks and strokes, as well as other cardiovascular illnesses (CVDs), from surpassing infectious diseases as the continent’s top cause of death.
The researchers at the Universities of Edinburgh and Essex, working in collaboration with the World Heart Federation, also warned on lack of monitoring and research is preventing evidence-based policies and interventions tailored to African communities that could save lives.
In the study, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the researchers said only 30 percent of countries in Africa are legally required to monitor air quality and only 18 percent are obliged to report on their findings.
The team led by Professor Mariachiara Di Cesare and Marvellous Adeoye from the Institute of Public Health and Wellbeing at the University of Essex and Dr Mark Miller from the University of Edinburgh reviewed existing research on the links between air pollution and CVDs in Africa to establish what is currently understood and identify gaps requiring further study.
They said only six academic studies have been completed on the impact of air pollution on CVDs for the continent, with the majority focusing on urban populations in South Africa, making it difficult to determine the true health impact of air pollution.
The study comes on the back of the WHF’s 2024 global report, published in May, and it reported also that just 24 of the 54 African nations are set up to measure air quality in some capacity.
Professor Di Cesare, a member of the World Heart Observatory expert group, declared, “This is a time bomb. With a population of over one billion, an increasing burden of cardiovascular diseases, and with half of the population expected to live in urban settings in just a decade from now, the region is at high risk of experiencing an unfair burden of cardiovascular mortality and morbidity due to the exposure to air pollution.”
Chair of the Air Pollution and Climate Change Expert Group at the WHF, Dr Miller stated that air pollution damages health all across the world, but Africa in particular is likely facing major air pollution challenges that will have a huge toll on cardiovascular health.
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He warned: “Low- and middle-income countries face some of the highest air pollution, in addition to many other stresses on health and a lack of access to good medical care.
“To save lives, we need better data, so that different sectors, policymakers, and communities can come together to identify more effective methods to improve air quality in those regions and put support in place to improve cardiovascular health and protect those who are particularly vulnerable.”
They, therefore, recommended better monitoring of air pollution in different regions and with more detailed characterisation of the sources of air pollution, establishing the efficacy of different mitigation strategies to reduce emissions and exposure, and tailored advice guidelines.
In addition, measuring out-of-hospital ill-health events as well as clinical outcomes and understanding both short- and long-term connections between air pollution and cardiovascular health, as well as examining exposure to air pollutants in different settings, both urban and rural, as well as risk variations in different communities,.