‘Over 71pc of rural population with hypertension in Pakistan lacks awareness about blood pressure’

To prevent thousands of people from permanent disability due to strokes, and premature deaths due to heart attacks, leading cardiologists of the country have urged the federal and provincial governments to train and involve community health workers and general practitioners for management and control of blood pressure with cheap medicines available in Pakistan.

“Over 71 per cent people with hypertension in rural areas of Pakistan have uncontrolled blood pressure, as they lack awareness about the health condition and its consequences. The authorities are urged to train community health workers and general practitioners throughout Pakistan for the screening and management of blood pressure among hypertensive people with cheaply available medicines,” said Dr Aamir Hameed Khan, cardiologist and chairman of the writing committee of the Third National Hypertension Guidelines of the Pakistan Hypertension League (PHL), as he spoke with The News on Monday at the sidelines of the 24th Annual Scientific Conference of the PHL.

The expert claimed that around 26 per cent adolescents were hypertensive. He called for a mass-scale screening and awareness programme for identifying millions of people with high blood pressure in Pakistan and helping them in management and control of blood pressure.

Citing the Control of Blood Pressure and Risk Attenuation (COBRA) trials in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka for the management of hypertension in the general public, the cardiologist said there was a need for involving community lady health workers as well as general physicians in the hypertension management programme. He also called for seeking assistance from the private health sector in this regard.

As per the Third National Hypertension Guidelines, obese individuals are more prone to developing hypertension while unhealthy lifestyle habits including excessive use of salt (sodium) or too little potassium, lack of physical activity, smoking, consuming alcohol and stress could also raise blood pressure.

The guidelines mention that amongst the different ethnicities in Pakistan, the Baloch have the highest prevalence of hypertension, which is 25 per cent in men and 41 per cent in women, followed by the Pashtuns with 24 per cent in men and 25 per cent in women.

Around 19 per cent Sindhi men and 9 per cent women are hypertensive while 17 per cent Punjabi men and 16 per cent women suffer high blood pressure, say the guidelines. On the other hand, a pharmaceutical firm of Pakistan has announced a massive programme for training community health workers and general physicians in the management of hypertension in the general public in the country.

“The Getz Pharma is in advance stage of talks with some private sector organisations to train an unspecified number of healthcare workers and general practitioners to control the epidemic of hypertension in Pakistan,” said Dr Wajiha Javed, a public health expert. “We need to educate community at large for home-based blood pressure monitoring through simple, validated and verified digital devices,” she added.