Will focus on health promotion among youth: WHF president

Prioritising action on high blood pressure and tobacco — the foremost risk factors for heart disease and disability globally — and focusing on health promotion and disease prevention among youth and women are among issues that will be taken up during my tenure," said Prof K Srinath Reddy, the first Indian who took over as president of the World Heart Federation (WHF). Prof. Salim Yusuf was voted as the Federation president-elect.

The election of the world's two leading experts in cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention and control has given WHF a powerful leadership and a strategic advantage in ensuring commitments made by government to reduce non-communicable disease (NCD) deaths by 25 per cent by 2025, said a statement issued by WHF.

WHF is dedicated to leading the global fight against heart disease and stroke with a focus on low and middle income countries through a united community of more than 200 member-organisations. Cardiovascular disese accounts for about one-third of the deaths worldwide and is the leading cause of deaths and disability.

While Prof Reddy is recognised internationally as a global stalwart on issues associated with public health and CVD, Prof Yusuf is the second most read and talked about scientist in the world according to a ranking by Science Watch.

Having trained in cardiology and epidemiology, Prof Reddy is regarded as a global leader in preventive cardiology and is the president of the Public Health Foundation in India (PHFI). He has played an active role in advancing the agenda of tobacco control and was awarded the World Health Organization Director General's Award in May 2003. He is a consultant to WHO and the World Bank and chairs the health section of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network which acts as an advisory group to the UN Secretary General's panel on Sustainable Development Goals that will define global development goals when the current Millennium Development Goals expires in 2015.

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