Cardiovascular disease and COVID-19: interrelationship and opportunities for change from 2 global crises.
In 2020, the acute coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has produced and continues to produce deaths, suffering and economic upheaval on a large scale. During the pandemic, nearly all people around the world have been affected by the virus itself or by the great concurrent social and economic hardships that have occurred due to COVID-19. Meanwhile, another global public health crisis, one of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and especially hypertension (HTN), has continued unabated in the background of COVID-19. Although more insidious in its onset and chronic in its presentation and natural history, compared to COVID-19, the disease burden of CVDs, of which HT is the main risk factor, is equally wide-ranging and could described as a “chronic pandemic”. Furthermore, CVD and in particular hypertension and its risk factors are important comorbidities for COVID-19. Therefore, there is a substantial, real and disastrous interrelation between the two.
This webinar will explore the interrelationship between CVD, HTN, and COVID-19. Where appropriate, a reference to key lessons being learned from the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic will be discussed, which share similarities with the CVD and HTN public health crises. The current state of the CVD crisis will be discussed with special attention to HTN and innovations for the detection and management of this pandemic of chronic diseases. Finally, the webinar will conclude with a session entitled "Journal Club Headlines" in which two recently published manuscripts will be discussed. One of which explores the interrelationship between COVID-19 and CVD and HTN, while the second presents a plan for the standardized treatment of hypertension, including the phased development and implementation of a drug treatment algorithm.
