WSC 2025 | Pillars of the African Stroke Organization: improving stroke services in Africa
Sarah Matuja, MD, PhD(c), Catholic University of Health and Allied Sciences, Mwanza, Tanzania & University of Leicester, Leicester, UK, discusses ongoing work by the African Stroke Organization, aiming to improve stroke services in Africa. Dr Matuja highlights key pillars, including capacity building, research, and community advocacy. This interview took place at the 17th World Stroke Congress (WSC) in Barcelona, Spain.
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Transcript
At the moment, we have a community or an organization called the African Stroke Organization. I’m part of that community, and I believe it’s been there for more than three years now. It’s led by a diverse group of African leaders, but it’s a diverse group of leaders from all over African countries. So our pillar for that organization is to promote capacity building efforts...
At the moment, we have a community or an organization called the African Stroke Organization. I’m part of that community, and I believe it’s been there for more than three years now. It’s led by a diverse group of African leaders, but it’s a diverse group of leaders from all over African countries. So our pillar for that organization is to promote capacity building efforts. At the moment, we’ve been conducting monthly webinars so that we can provide, we can strengthen acute care services, but also rehabilitation to healthcare workers within the African continent. The other pillar that we’re working on is research. We’ve had collaborative research that has been published and ongoing research that helps to promote and address the burden of stroke and different ways that we can work together to improve stroke outcomes in the African continent. The other section is focusing on community advocacy. So as I mentioned earlier, delayed hospital presentation is a key barrier to improving care and stroke is a neurological emergency and requires acute intervention. So we’re finding ways to work together to promote advocacy so that our people, our community members, are aware and they are knowledgeable enough to recognize symptoms and signs and rush to the hospital. And the last component is focusing on acute services. So we’re trying to work together to implement these acute stroke services in other African regions. Let’s say, for example, the Tanzania Stroke Project now serves as a model for other underserved regions who are beginning to introduce acute stroke services, which is very important for sub-Saharan African countries. So we’ve tried to scale up this to Ghana, but also to other regions within the African continent. But also sharing experiences is very pivotal to be able to understand and encourage one another in this journey of improving stroke care within the African continent.
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