Evidence and data collected during the pandemic outbreak show that COVID-19 has had a significant impact on patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD).

According to an extensive worldwide survey by the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), the number of heart attack patients seeking urgent hospital care has dropped by more than 50% during the COVID-19 outbreak, and this was the strongest evidence yet of the collateral damage caused by the pandemic. Fear of catching the coronavirus means even people in the midst of a life-threatening heart attack are too afraid to go to the hospital for life-saving treatment. “There has been a lack of public reassurance that every effort has been made to provide clean hospital areas for non-COVID-19 patients. Yet the risk of dying of a heart attack is much greater than that of dying of COVID-19. Moreover, cardiac death is largely preventable if patients with a heart attack come to the hospital in time to get treatment. What we are witnessing is an unnecessary loss of life. Our priority must be to stop this from happening. We must continue to save the lives we know how to save”, said ESC President Professor Barbara Casadei last June 2020. One year after, what is the situation? How have the vulnerable target groups and CVDs patients’ been treated during the pandemic? How to increase awareness of a more than just primary prevention among people? What are the lessons learned by more resilient Health Care Systems in the area of CVDs? What should we expect from the implementation of the Recovery Plans across Europe?

To help answer these questions, Active Citizenship Network - the EU branch of the Italian NGO Cittadinanzattiva - is organizing a public event, hosted by the MEPs Interest Group "European Patients' Rights & CrossBorder Healthcare, useful also to share good practices and political views to subject to the attention of the European institutions.

The event is scheduled for September 29, 2021, in occasion of the Annual “World Heart Day” in order to spread awareness about heart disease and stroke prevention. This is the perfect day to quit smoking, start exercising and start eating healthy – all in the name of keeping your heart rate in good condition, and improving the health and well-being of people all over the world. On this occasion, Active Citizenship Network will show for the first time at the EU level ad hoc video messages realized as part of the multi annual EU project “Increasing consciousness and access to treatment, reducing the burden of cardiovascular diseases across Europe”.

The initiative will be realized digitally and held in the framework of the cycle of EU Webinars «Health at the heart of the future of Europe», which ACN will hold to feed the debate of the Conference for the Future of Europe.

The event will be realized thanks to the support of Bayer

To know more please write to: brussels@activecitizenship.net