Biocon is supporting a first-of-its-kind 'Queen of Heart' campaign to create awareness on cardiovascular diseases which is seen to be killing more women than all the cancers combined.

The campaign was unveiled here by Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairman and managing director, Biocon.

The Biocon supported campaign is a joint initiative of Heal Foundation in partnership with Indian Public Health Association (IPHA) and Centre for Community Medicines AIIMS New Delhi.

Globally, World Health Organisation (WHO) pegs the number of cardiovascular deaths among women at 8.6 million, which includes 34 per cent women from India. With around three million Indian women succumbing to heart related complications every year, the need for such campaigns and initiatives is amplified. In India, heart disease is considered a men’s disease, and the Queen of Heart campaign aims to turn this conventional perception around and focus on women being victims of heart disease.

In a recent survey called ‘Visualizing the Extent of heart Disease in INdiAn women,’ or VEDNA, which mapped the trends of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in Indian women, revealed eye-opening views of healthcare experts, like 83 per cent of the doctors believed that Indian women are ignorant about heart diseases, while 76 per cent observed that women die of heart diseases due to late presentation to the hospital, and 66 per cent cited that CVD deaths among women was due to late diagnosis.

The first phase of the Million Death Study women reported to have greater CVD mortality because of problems in risk assessment, delays in diagnosis and management, clinical presentation, low quality of acute coronary care and fewer options for long-term management and secondary prevention.

“For strengthening healthcare delivery in India, it is important to have a balanced approach towards universal health, which will remain an unrealized goal until interventional strategies encompass public health in the right way. I firmly believe such awareness campaigns broadly intend to achieve this target,” added Shaw.

“More young women are resorting to tobacco smoking these days, and this is one of the most significant factors behind why the incidence of CVDs among Indian women,” said Dr K Srinath Reddy, president, World Heart Federation and president, Public Health Foundation of India.

The Queen of Heart campaign is aimed to be an interactive campaign focussed firmly on heart disease in Indian women. Delayed detection and lack of attention has resulted in burgeoning CVD cases in women. The  campaign, with its integrated 360-degree communication approach, aims to bust myths, enlighten men, and urge them to take their women to a cardiologist for a precautionary heart check-up. It includes massive nationwide public relation drives, consumer and primary care physician engagement programmes, as well as digital, electronic and print media activation.