Global Heart, March 2014, Vol. 9 No.1 Sub-Saharan Africa has the world’s youngest populations. The pattern of cardiovascular disease (CVD) is distinctly different from other regions, with a lower proportion of causes stemming from atherosclerosis, and a younger average age at CVD death. Sub-Saharan Africa has the world’s lowest ischaemic heart disease death rates, but stroke death rates are similar to those in Western, High Income countries