Editorial: Gaps, priorities, and advances in cardiovascular medicine in Africa

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Editorial on the Research Topic Gaps, priorities and advances in cardiovascular medicine in Africa Africa has been a research hub for many scientific and clinical investigations from the global North but remains one of the regions with the greatest disproportions in health equity and resources (1).Among several communicable and non-communicable disease (NCD) challenges, cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a major population health and economic burden with increasing morbidity and mortality rates (2).On the African continent, CVD ranges from atherosclerotic disease, cardiomyopathy, congenital heart disease, hypertension, and rheumatic heart disease, to tuberculous pericarditis, among others (3, 4).Opportunities are available to change the CVD epidemiology trajectories since several gaps have been reported in the improvement of CVD management and awareness in Africa.However, these changes are only possible when priorities are identified and addressed by policymakers, functional health systems and engaging communities.With the current escalating burden of CVD in Africa, this Research Topic aimed to collate available information and provide insights into the current gaps and priorities in cardiovascular medicine in African countries, calls to action for the current CVD challenges in Africa and research advances in the broader field of cardiovascular medicine in Africa.This Research Topic is therefore dedicated to highlighting research performed in Africa and highlighting the limitations and opportunities in the health sector of African countries.The limited resources allocated to prevention and control of NCDs such as hypertension and type 2 diabetes mellitus in sub-Saharan Africa threatens to reverse the gains made in increasing life expectancy through the rapid scale-up of care for communicable diseases (5).In the review of the current state of CVD in Africa, Minja et al. present a comprehensive profile of the current cardiovascular pathologies in sub-Saharan Africa, with heart failure, atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases, coronary artery disease, and stroke emerging as the main contributors to the CVD burden.As expected, the four major risk factors are high blood pressure, obesity, hyperglycemia, and tobacco use, with hypertension as the leading cause of stroke, ischemic, and hypertensive heart disease in all four sub-Saharan Africa regions (West, East, Central, and Southern).The identified essential gaps in this review are the generation of representative data on CVD prevalence and outcomes, limited healthcare workforce, poor access to CVD care, and low education and literacy levels at an individual

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