Heart Awareness Month 2019

Heart Awareness Month is earmarked for September on an annual basis in South Africa. The month is dedicated to raising awareness about heart disease and its risk factors in South Africa, and culminates in World Heart Day on 29 September. Heart Awareness Month has long been a platform for raising awareness about heart disease and highlighting the importance of a healthy lifestyle and appropriate treatment.

Our Unit Director, A/Prof Liesl Zühlke took the opportunity to speak to Kevin Brandt of Eye Witness News this past week in order to help raise awareness about a lesser known issue - congenital heart disease in children.

Congenital heart disease is the most common birth defect in children and significantly about eight in every 1,000 babies born in South Africa have some kind of congenital heart defect. The Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital alone conducts over 300 intricate heart operations every year in an effort to save these children's lives.

We at the CHDRU, therefore, dedicate the month of September to raising awareness about heart disease in children.

Click here to read the full news piece and remember to keep an eye out for more information on upcoming World Heart Day activities later this month.