All people, everywhere, have the right to achieve the highest attainable level of health. This is the fundamental premise of primary health care .
Primary health care is a whole-of-society approach to effectively organize and strengthen national health systems to bring services for health and wellbeing closer to communities. It has 3 components:
integrated health services to meet people’s health needs throughout their lives
addressing the broader determinants of health through multisector policy and action
empowering individuals, families and communities to take charge of their own health.
Primary health care enables health systems to support a person’s health needs – from health promotion to disease prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, palliative care and more. This strategy also ensures that health care is delivered in a way that is centered on people’s needs and respects their preferences.
Primary health care is widely regarded as the most inclusive, equitable and cost-effective way to achieve universal health coverage. It is also key to strengthening the resilience of health systems to prepare for, respond to and recover from shocks and crises.
A heart attack is scary. If you’ve had one, or are close to someone who has, you’re not alone.
Many people survive a heart attack and go on to enjoy productive lives.
A heart attack occurs when an artery that sends blood and oxygen to the heart is blocked.
Fatty, cholesterol-containing deposits build up over time, forming plaques in the heart's arteries. If a plaque ruptures, a blood clot can form.
The clot can block arteries, causing a heart attack.
During a heart attack, a lack of blood flow causes the tissue in the heart muscle to die.
The process of atherosclerosis may have no symptoms in its early stages. But when an artery is narrowed by over 70%, muscle pain or cramps may occur when tissue needs more oxygen than it’s able to receive.
When a coronary artery narrows and constricts blood flow, other nearby blood vessels that serve the heart sometimes expand to compensate, which may explain why there may be no warning signs.
Such a network of expanded nearby blood vessels is called collateral circulation, and it helps protect some people from heart attacks by delivering needed blood to the heart.
Collateral circulation can also develop after a heart attack to help the heart muscle recover.