Upcoming in 2019, National Heart Valve Disease (HVD) Awareness Day takes place around the
United States on February 22nd — during American Heart Month. HVD Awareness Day is an
annual day dedicated to increasing education and awareness of the specific risks and
symptoms of heart valve disease.
Sponsored by the Alliance for Aging Research, the awareness campaign seeks to further
educate the public about HVD to reduce the number of people suffering from arrhythmias, heart
attacks, heart failure, and other heart diseases every year.
Five million people in the United States live with Heart Valve Disease, yet public awareness of
the disease remains low. Surveys have shown that only one in four Americans know anything
about HVD at all, while the remaining three out of four know next-to-nothing. Often, symptoms
of HVD are dismissed as normal parts of aging, but gone untreated, HVD can be deadly.
HVD involves damage to one or more of the heart’s valves. It’s certainly more common with
age, and one in eight people over age 75 likely suffers from moderate to severe HVD of some
kind.
CardioVisual partners with the Alliance for Aging Research and Valve Disease Day to help get
the word out about valve conditions to help save lives. Doctors and other healthcare
professionals can stay involved with HVD Awareness Day by sharing the “Listen to Your Heart”
resources with their patients, where patients and their families can learn the symptoms of HVD
and as well as their risk factors for the disease.