Three out of four individuals in Bangladesh have a risk of developing cardiac disease that can be prevented by simple means and hypertension is one such risk, says a policy forum on Monday.
Hypertension is the leading cause of cardiovascular and kidney diseases and over 1.5 billion are expected to be affected by hypertension by 2025.
This is especially adverse in South Asia given that the prevalence of hypertension is already at 40 per cent.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), one out of three adults older than 35 years of age has hypertension, but half of them are not aware of it, according to a message received from icddr,b.
The policy forum held on Monday on Hypertension and Cardio-Metabolic Diseases in Colombo observed government ministers, policymakers, economists, researchers and representatives of global health agencies at a single table, addressing steps to prevent, pre-empt and treat hypertension and related co-morbidities, including diabetes, cardiovascular and kidney disease.
The half-day forum was officiated by Dr Harsha de Silva, State Minister for National Policies and Economic Affairs of Sri Lanka, and included presentations and panel discussions involving ministers of health from the study countries in addition to key stakeholders from the research, academic and health sectors.
Dr Aliya Naheed, Head, Initiative for Non-communicable Diseases, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b); Dr Abdul Alim, Deputy Programme Manager, Non-Communicable Disease Control (NCDC) Programme, Directorate-General of Health Services (DGHS); and Prof Dr SM Mustafa Zaman, Secretary General, Association of Physicians of Bangladesh, represented Bangladesh at the policy forum.
Tazeen Jafar from Duke-NUS' Health Services and Systems Research and overall lead investigator of the multi-country Control of Blood Pressure and Risk Attenuation - Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka (COBRA-BPS) study co-hosted the Forum and shared, "Up to three out of four adults with hypertension in South Asia have poorly controlled blood pressure, and one-third have co-existing diabetes."
This is very concerning as complications, including heart attack, stroke and kidney disease, tend to manifest 5-7 years earlier in South Asians than in Caucasian European populations.
