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Dedicated to reducing disability and death from cardiovascular diseases and stroke in the Americas

16th of May 2008

Lowering your risks
CARMELA Study
Tobacco Control
Science of Peace Lecture

Magnitude of CVD in Latin America
Emergency Cardiovascular Care (ECC)

News and Press Releases

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4th Triennial Luther L. Terry Awards for Exemplary Leadership in Tobacco Control

The American Cancer Society today announces the opening of the call for nominations of the Luther L. Terry Awards for Exemplary Leadership in Tobacco Control. Named for the late United States Surgeon General Luther L. Terry, M.D., whose groundbreaking work established the foundation for public health scrutiny of the dangers of tobacco use, the awards honor outstanding leadership and accomplishment, are synonymous with excellence, and signify that the recipients are among the very best in the world at what they do. The awards will be presented at the 14th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health, in Mumbai, India on Wednesday, March 11, 2009. Go to website... | See Press Release... | See brochure...
Message from the President Dr. Rafael Shuchleib

This past year has seen continued growth for the InterAmerican Heart Foundation (IAHF). The CARMELA Study principal paper has been accepted for publication in the American Journal of Medicine and will appear in Jan 2008. IAHF organized the publication of a series of policy relevant articles on preventing heart diseases and stroke in Latin America and the Caribbean that appeared in the journal Prevention and Control. We continue to expand advocacy work in tobacco control. With partner Maver, we continued a series of symposia for health
professionals in Chile, as well as risk reduction messages for the public. The Board meeting in April 07 in Lima gave us an opportunity to review the Foundation’s priorities and re-commit to some key principles. The focus will continue to be on advocacy and education, seeking sustainability of all initiatives. We understand the importance of continuing to maintain an action orientation and meeting the needs of our region, jointly with our members and various regional, national and local partners, governments and civil society.
II Seminario Regional sobre Epidemiología y Prevención de las Enfermedades Cardiovasculares

Con gran éxito se llevó acabo el II Seminario Regional Sobre Epidemiología y Prevención de las Enfermedades Cardiovasculares, organizado por Ascardio y la Sociedad Internacional para la Epidemiología y Prevención de las Enfermedades Cardiovasculares, el cual se desarrolló desde el 29 de Febrero hasta el 5 de Marzo de 2008, en las instalaciones del Hotel La Fumarola, en la población de Sanare, ubicada en el Estado Lara, Venezuela, donde un grupo de médicos provenientes de diversas ciudades de nuestro país y de otras

latitudes como: México, Colombia, El Salvador, Canadá, España, Ecuador, Argentina y Puerto Rico se dieron cita para estudiar entre otros puntos, conceptos básicos de epidemiología, estadística y métodos en salud pública necesarios para emprender la lucha contra las enfermedades cardiovasculares y sus factoresderiesgo. Más info...

Heads of State of Caribbean Countries Commit to Curbing the Epidemic of Chronic Disease

Prime Ministers of Caribbean Countries met on September 15th in Port of Spain, Trinidad, in the First Caribbean Summit on Chronic Diseases and signed a declaration for the prevention of chronic diseases in the Caribbean countries. This declaration represents a major regional assault against chronic non-communicable diseases.
This historic first step of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is intended to galvanize the Region against obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, heart attack and some kinds of cancer. See graph of obesity trends in the Caribbean. Chronic diseases result largely from poor diet and low levels of physical activity as well as tobacco smoking and exposure to tobacco smoke. They come at a high cost to individuals and to the region’s nation states in terms of human suffering, expensive treatment and loss of productivity. IAHF is working with member organizations to facilitate an appropriate civil society response to this opportunity.
Interamerican Youth for Health

Young people from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay participated in an event to highlight advocacy projects in their countries. They signed “The Latin American and Caribbean Youth Declaration for a Tobacco Free Life.” They request governments of the region to ratify and implement the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), to inform and educate health

professionals and the public about the damage caused by tobacco, to include youth in the deliberations and actions about tobacco control affecting them, to support and provide tools to build capacity among youth in tobacco control, and to promote joined work by civil society and international entities to prevent and control tobacco in our societies. Young people presented their Declaration during the Closing Ceremony of the Rio Iberoamerican Tobacco Control Conference. This youth participation was the result of a partnership between the World Heart Federation and the InterAmerican Heart Foundation.

Women and Tobacco

The InterAmerican Heart Foundation (IAHF) and International Network of Women Against Tobacco (INWAT) organized a Pre-Conference Workshop focus on Women and Tobacco during the First SRNT Latin America & Second Iberoamerican Conference on Tobacco Control in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The purpose of the meeting was to provide a platform for debate; share experiences and

lessons learned about women and tobacco in the fields of advocacy, research and policy; and facilitate the development of women's leadership in the Ibero-American regions.

Participants attending the Conference signed the Rio Declaration which announces the creation of the “Latin American and Caribbean Women’s Network for Tobacco Control”.

Focusing Tobacco Control Research in Latin America and the Caribbean

The InterAmerican Heart Foundation (IAHF) and Research for International Tobacco Control (RICT/IDRC) organized a regional meeting that

took place March 22-25, 2007 in Colonia, Uruguay, with the objective of establishing research priorities in tobacco control in the region of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). The workshop participants were 30 key researchers and activists in tobacco control in LAC, from a wide range of professions and disciplines including economists, lawyers, journalists, nurses, physicians, psychologists, anthropologists, sociologists, political scientists, among others, as well as government and non-government organizations. There were also representatives from some important organizations such as: American Cancer Society, Johns Hopkins University, Johnson & Johnson and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).  More...

Community Interventions for Health (CIH)
The IAHF received a grant to implement the CIH program in Mexico City over three years. The Principal Investigator is Dr. Jorge Ramírez, an epidemiologist and health economist associated with
the Foundation. The aim of CIH is to

develop and showcase sustainable interventions, demonstrating their effectiveness in a way that is both practical and scientifically rigorous. Project outcomes include:
 

  • a best-practice ‘roadmap’ of guidance to address chronic disease risk factors; and

  • a comprehensive international database of intervention processes and outcomes.

In other words, CIH will provide evidence and practical advice on what does and does not work in chronic disease prevention. More...

4th Journalism Contest on Tobacco Control

The IAHF, jointly with the Pan American Health Organization and the Framework Convention Alliance, presented first prizes in the categories of print and radio to journalists in the region. First prize overall went to Valeria Roman (see right), a science journalist with Clarin, the largest circulation newspaper in Argentina, for her August 2006 article "El Proyecto Oficial de Ley Contra el Tabaquismo." The first prize in the radio category

went to Daniel Cassola Buenos Aires, Argentina, for his radio program "60 Minutos con Daniel Cassola". A fifth contest was announced in Rio for works prepared in 2007.

Many thanks to Johnson & Johnson for their kind support of this contest.

A list of all contest entries can be found here

CARMELA Study: Publication of main paper

The main paper entitled “CARMELA: assessment of cardiovascular risk in seven Latina American cities” was accepted for publication by the American Journal of Medicine and is expected to appear in January 2008. This study recruited 11,550

individuals, ages 25 to 64,  from Bogotá (Colombia), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Lima (Peru), Mexico City, Quito (Ecuador), Santiago (Chile), and Barquisimeto (Venezuela) to be representative of the population of their respective cities. Each of these individuals completed an interview in his or her home and then visited a medical center where physical and biochemical measures where obtained. All participants also had carotic intima media thickness (IMT) measured by echography. The CARMELA Study objectives are to determine the prevalence of arterial hypertension, diabetes and dislipidemia, their correlations and associations; measure the IMT of carotid arteries, investigating its association with risk factors; evaluate socio-economic factors; determine other cardiovascular risk factors including tobacco use, diet and physical activity; and evaluate the pertinent treatment of the evaluated risk factors and adherence to them. CARMELA investigators met in mid October 2007 in Buenos Aires to complete the 7 articles on specific risk factors that will make up a Supplement. The Supplement topics are hypertension, diabetes, tobacco, obesity, lipids, metabolic syndrome and IMT. The Mario Negri Institute of Milan, Italy, is the study’s main statistical analysis consultant. The Mario Negri brings to CARMELA a wealth of experience in data management, analysis and interpretation that will contribute significantly to the CARMELA enterprise.

Emergency Cardiovascular Care
During 2007, the IAHF ECC Executive Committee developed a new Strategic Plan that was approved by the IAHF Board of Directors. The sustained growth in the ECC training program, in conjunction with the AHA, is a testament to the advancement of the mission of the Committee. The IAHF just recently designated Dr. Saúl Drajer as the new President Elect of the ECC Executive Committee.

Public Access Defibrillation initiatives throughout Latin America and the Caribbean include preventing sudden death in sports. In 2008, commemorating the 10th anniversary of the ECC Committee, the First Iberoamerican Congress on CPR and ECC will take place in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

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Events:

Calendar of events
May 18-21, 2008
XVI World Congress of Cardiology
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