On December 4, 2014 in his message to the Federal Assembly the President of Russia Vladimir Putin said: “In the early 2000-ies the United Nations’ experts predicted us further demographic decline.
According to this prognosis the population of our country by the end of 2013 would be reduced to 136 million people.
I would like to add that in last two years, 2013 and 2014, as you know, we had a natural population growth in Russia. This year in the Global Rating of Health Russia for the first time was recognized as a safe country. Countries are considered to be safe if life expectancy there is over 70 years old. At the moment life expectancy in Russia exceeded 71 years. I think in the near future we have good perspectives to increase life expectancy to 74 years and to achieve qualitative dynamics in reducing of mortality. In this regard I propose to declare 2015 the National Year of Fight against Cardiovascular Diseases, which are the leading cause of death today, combining efforts of medical professionals, representatives of culture, education, media, social and sports organizations”.
At the all-Russian seminar on social development of the Russian Federation regions in December 2014 the
Minister of Healthcare Veronica Skvortsova said that cardiovascular diseases could be considered as a national problem: every 13th Russian suffers from vascular diseases, and in every second they lead to death. In the mortality structure cardiovascular diseases make a significant contribution, accounting for more than 50% of all deaths.
The Ministry of Healthcare Program against cardiovascular diseases consists of several blocks, and each requires careful attention.
An important block of the Program is associated with assessment of cardiovascular diseases risks, as well as informing people about risk factors and healthy lifestyles. The powerful awareness programme should not go simply through media, but also using the Internet, special education in pre-school settings and schools. Such programme requires participation of other Ministries – Ministries of culture and education.
Not less important is the second part of public awareness about the early signs of vascular catastrophes and algorithms of actions in case of a heart attack or stroke. The Minister stressed that this is an important area of work that should be carried out through all possible channels.Another important direction of work is associated with organization of control points for ambulance resources. Special attention will be given to regional vascular centers.
Every region of the Russian Federation will develop their own Plan of the National Year of Fight against Cardiovascular Disease, taking into account regional features.
Each Plan consists of 3 main blocks: (1) a huge number of activities in the frame of population strategy of CVD prevention (with intersectoral participation), (2) active screening for high CVD risk individuals, and (3) further development of secondary prevention in CVD patients.
In the frame of the National Year of Fight Against CVDs the Russian National Society for Preventive Cardiology in 2015 will perform numerous activities including: an Educational Project for primary care doctors, the annual Conference “Prevention 2015”, which this year will focus on CVDs, and an informational Campaign for population.
