The Cape Town Declaration Calls for Improved Strategies to Treat RHD
Experts from the world’s major heart surgery organisations — including The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS), the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS), the Asian Society for Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery (ASCVTS), and the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (EACTS) — are calling for urgent action to develop and implement effective strategies for treating rheumatic heart disease (RHD), which affects 33 million people worldwide and kills 320,000 annually.
The joint statement, known as The Cape Town Declaration, was first published online in The Annals of Thoracic Surgery on August 3rd 2018 and will be published simultaneously in the following journals: Asian Cardiovascular and Thoracic Annals, Cardiovascular Journal of Africa, Chinese Circulation Journal, European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery, Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Polish Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery, South African Medical Journal, and the South Africa Heart Journal. Its mission is "to urge all relevant entities within the international cardiac surgery, industry, and government sectors to commit to develop and implement an effective strategy to address the scourge of rheumatic heart disease in the developing world through increased access to life-saving cardiac surgery".