Report on the African Stroke Organization Inauguration

28 Oct 2020

The official launch of the African Stroke Organization.

African Stroke Organization Virtual Inauguration

To mark its official launch, the African Stroke Organization (ASO) hosted a Virtual Inauguration Webinar on Thursday 22nd October 2020. Prof Adesola Ogunniyi, Trustee and Council Chair, ASO and Prof Bruce Ovbiagele ASO Diaspora Leader (North America) co-chaired the webinar.

A video message of congratulations from WSO President Prof Michael Brainin was shared in which Prof Brainin acknowledged the burden of stroke on the African continent and the need to work together to improve stroke prevention and care.

Dr Rufus Akinyemi, Chair, ASO Steering Committee, gave an overview of the ASO journey so far in his opening plenary ‘Building to last: Growing an enduring framework to defeat stroke in Africa’. The vision of ASO is ‘reduction of the burden of stroke in Africa,’ and its mission is to reduce this burden through multidisciplinary research and capacity building, promoting the development of effective stroke prevention and intervention services, enhancing stroke awareness, advocating for stroke survivors and their families/caregivers and driving the formulation of stroke-friendly policies.

ASO is now a registered organisation and has secured grants to support the hosting of the first ASO Conference in 2021 in Ethiopia and to survey the stroke education needs across Africa to inform ASO’s capacity building activities.

Prof Vladimir Hachinski, Global Leader in Stroke, Former Vice President WSO and Former President WFN, delivered the Distinguished Inauguration Lecture ‘The ambibaric brain: A reinterpretation of the cerebral circulation’. Prof Hachinski drew attention to the high prevalence of hypertension in sub Saharan Africa, with less than half of cases diagnosed or receiving medical treatment. He highlighted the opportunity for high impact prevention at the population level and that the ambibaric brain calls for developing practical methods of measuring optimal blood pressure for the individual. Prof Hachinski also noted the leading role ASO can play in hypertension, stroke and dementia prevention.

The ASO Inauguration included the voices of a range of stroke stakeholders from across the African continent, with Rita Melifonwu of Stroke Action Nigeria sharing the perspective of stroke support organisations and George Scola from Stroke Survivors Foundation South Africa sharing his lived experience of stroke.

169 attendees joined the event from across the world and a number of good will messages were delivered including from the African Academy of Neurology, UK Stroke Forum, European Stroke Organisation and World Health Organisation. All recognised the important role that ASO has to play in stroke prevention and care across the African continent. As Prof Raj Kalaria, ASO Diaspora Leader stated ‘Every vital organization owes its birth and life to an exciting and daring idea. We need to engage quickly the stakeholders, policy makers and public’.

The event marked a truly auspicious occasion for the continent's first regional stroke organization and an important step towards the vision of reducing the burden of stroke in Africa.

For more information about the African Stroke Organization please visit: http://www.africanstrokeorganization.org/

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