The Faculty of Health Sciences  at the Durban University of Technology (DUT) recently hosted a heart health screening programme on the DUT Steve Biko campus in Durban.

Dr Rosaley Prakaschandra, the senior academic lecturer in the Department of Biomedical and Clinical Technology said this programme is one of her outreach interests because cardiovascular disease is her research area. Dr Prakaschandra mentioned that during the years she noticed that the prevalence of cardiovascular risk is increasing steadily and what is worrying is that the numbers are increasing amongst young people, which is their motivation to annually run this awareness programme.

Health promotion officer sister Juandre Watson from the Heart and Stroke Foundation South Africa said that there are many programmes that the foundation is doing all over South Africa and they visited DUT to monitor student’s health.

“September is the heart health awareness month, so the Heart and Stroke Foundation has many campaigns that it runs across South Africa. One of our main aims is to reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease in South Africa, so this campaign that we are running now at DUT is to monitor and see the students and how their cardiovascular health is, and to see who is at high risk. We will refer the ones that we worry about, give them a referral letter to see a medical practitioner,” she said.

A first year student, Manqoba Mahaye, who participated in the health screening, said that he screened himself because he likes knowing if he is still healthy and how his body is functioning.

“I usually consider myself as a scientific guinea pig, so whenever there is a call for a scientific purpose, I join and get the experience, I like having my body checked as well. I would recommend this screening to everyone because it makes you aware and it keeps you up to date with your wellness as you get to know if you are still healthy or if you need to see a doctor,” he said.

Pictured: Faculty of Health Sciences students at the event.

Sthembile Ndlovu