The media launch of this year’s World Heart Day took place at the British Council Hall in Accra on Wednesday, September 23, 2009. The theme for this year’s World Heart Day is Work with Heart – promoting healthy heart at the workplace. The day is used to raise awareness and educate the public on heart-related diseases and conditions and ways to manage or avoid them.

Though World Heart Day is marked across the world, in Africa the event is observed only in Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa.  Present at the launch were the President of the Ghana Heart Foundation, Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, the Board Chairman of Prudential Bank, Hon. J. S. Addo and the Chairman of the Organizing Committee, Dr Alfred Doku.

This year’s event will be marked simultaneously in Accra, Cape Coast and Kumasi. Activities lined up include Health Walk, Media Education Programmes, Quizzes and Floats.

In a press briefing after the launch, DRH Programmes Director, Dr Promise Sefogah, urged Ghanaians to avoid cholesterol and fatty foods, reduce salt and alcohol intake and exercise regularly to prevent heart diseases. He also advised against tobacco use and high-levels of work-related stress.

Dr Sefogah cautioned Ghanaians to watch what they eat, saying that “what you eat can either kill you or give you life.”

World Heart Day in Ghana is organized by the Ghana Heart Foundation, the Ghana Society for Hypertension and Cardiology and the World Health Organisation, in partnership with HEALTHpage, Ghana, now Doctors for Right to Health (DRH).