African Educational Initiative

The World Stroke Organization (WSO) has made a strategic commitment to drive implementation of evidence-based stroke care across the care continuum as part of its response to increasing stroke prevalence in LMICs.

Current challenge

The number of stroke deaths in LMICs is projected to rise sharply – widening the gap with HICs – by increasing from 5.7 million in 2020 to 8.8 million in 2050. In contrast, stroke deaths in HICs are estimated to remain largely unchanged at around 900,000 between 2020 and 2050. This indicates that the proportion of global stroke deaths that occur in LMICs will increase from 86% in 2020 to 91% in 2050.

Potential solutions

Pragmatic approaches to improving stroke care in Africa include regular monitoring of risk factors and health services, implementation of prevention strategies, improving acute care and rehabilitation services, and encouraging task sharing. The emergence of standalone stroke care and stroke units in some North African and sub-Saharan countries has been recognized as encouraging. With supported expansion, impact evidence and advocacy interventions, this approach could facilitate the sustainable development and improvement of organized systems of care in the region.

Implementing scalable improvement across the care continuum

The World Stroke Organization (WSO) has made a strategic commitment to drive implementation of evidence-based stroke care across the care continuum as part of its response to increasing stroke prevalence in LMICs. Our strategic approach encompasses:

• facilitating adoption of stroke care protocols
• establishing stroke units supported by the WSO Roadmap to Quality Stroke Care
• capacity building of healthcare professionals through access to tailored pragmatic educational content and workshops
• data gathering to measure the effectiveness of implementation
• facilitating adoption of strategies into routine clinical practice at the system, organizational and individual level through certification of acute and rehabilitative stroke care.
• facilitating access to stroke ready care by increasing community awareness of signs of stroke

WSO-MERZ THERAPEUTICS Collaboration

This collaboration supports the establishment and expansion of a network of acute stroke and stroke rehabilitation centers in Nigeria and Tanzania. MERZ Therapeutics is interested in collaborating with the World Stroke Organization (WSO) in its efforts of increasing access to health in Low- and Middle-Income Countries with a focus on previously underserved communities.

The main two goals of the project are as follows:

1. Improve stroke care services for patients in low resource health care settings in Tanzania (Patient centric).
2. Enhance neurologist education to improve post-stroke rehabilitation programs and in-crease Healthcare Professional capacity in stroke care in Nigeria (HCP centric).