How Belt and Road Initiative can improve healthcare

Heart-related cardiovascular diseases are the number one cause of death globally: more people die annually from cardiovascular diseases than from any other cause.

According to the World Health Organization data, an estimated 17.7 million people died from cardiovascular diseases in 2015, representing 31 percent of all global deaths. Of these deaths, an estimated 7.4 million were due to coronary heart disease and 6.7 million due to stroke. Over three quarters of cardiovascular disease deaths take place in low- and middle-income countries.

Out of the 17 million premature deaths (under the age of 70) due to no communicable diseases in 2015, 82 percent were in low- and middle-income countries, and 37 percent were caused by cardiovascular diseases.
With the increasing challenges related to healthcare, especially heart-related diseases, it is becoming more and more difficult for a single country to solve this big issue of our time. China launched the Belt and Road Initiative under the leadership of President Xi Jinping in 2013 and the healthcare projects were part of many important projects in different countries. As this year marks the 5th anniversary of the initiative much has been done and a lot needs to be done.

Recently, the Fuwai Hospital, also known as national center for cardiovascular diseases, signed several agreements with different Belt and Road countries for the management of heart-related diseases. An MOU was signed with college of physicians and surgeons, Pakistan, and a collaboration deal with the Asian countries, especially Bangladesh, Thailand, Nepal and Malaysia. I’m glad to be part of the Belt and Road Initiative, especially for Coronary CTO (Chronic Total Occlusion) project as our team is performing the biggest number of percutaneous coronary intervention. The vision of our team leader Professor Wu Yongjian is that the Belt and Road countries people are our friends and we will share our latest technology and techniques with our friends for good health.

As part of the initiative, a Belt and Road Cardiac Session was held in Beijing at Fuwai Hospital in 2018 CTO Week. At the occasion, different agreements were signed and initiated. Being the project coordinator for CTO Week, I feel immense pleasure to bring the cardiologist from Belt and Road countries to one platform to work for the wellbeing of the society and healthy heart of the region.

I’m from Bangladesh and I have spent a major part of my life abroad. I have been to more than 10 countries for study and hands-on experience in interventional cardiology training programs. After coming to China I was so much impressed by the hospitality of Chinese people that now I feel that China is my second home.

In near future a cardiac society of Belt and Road countries will be established and Belt and Road countries will join hands to work together for effective collaboration and management of heart-related diseases. I believe that with one vision, Belt and Road Initiative, we can bring the region at one platform for a healthy heart.

Dr. Misbahul Ferdous is a PhD graduate from the Shandong University School of Medicine and a China Scholarship Council award recipient. He works at Fuwai Hospital in Beijing.

The opinions expressed here are those of the writer and do not represent the views of China Daily and China Daily website.