Together Our Impact is Greater

When Hurricane Ida hit Louisiana in 2021, over a million residents lost power—a familiar and dangerous problem in the region. Local civic leaders and pastors in New Orleans decided to take matters into their own hands and began devising a new community-driven strategy to give residents safe, reliable places to get the care and resources they need in a disaster.

The CDC Foundation today announced a new National Hypertension Control Program aimed at addressing this critical health challenge of uncontrolled high blood pressure in the United States.

Pro football legend Jerome Bettis, the former running back better known as “The Bus,” brought a heart health message to the big game in New Orleans on behalf of the CDC Foundation and the cardiovascular health initiative Live to the Beat. “It’s really for me an honor to be working with the CDC Foundation and Live to the Beat,” Bettis told People magazine. "Heart health is critically important and I think a lot of people don't understand hypertension [and] high blood pressure. These things are killers, especially in the Black community.”

Heart disease is the number one killer of Americans, and research shows that substance use is increasingly linked to deaths from cardiac arrest and strokes. Our Overdose Data to Action (OD2A) initiative provides staff to local communities to aid in reducing deaths from overdose and substance use, leading to more effective response activities across the country. “Substance use disorders increase the risk of heart disease, yet stigma prevents many from seeking care,” said Keaura Looney, an OD2A project manager. “By integrating prevention, harm reduction and increasing access to treatment, we can save lives and promote recovery.”