FE REPORT
Sustainable financing and a strong primary healthcare system are crucial to address the growing number of hypertension patients in the country, health experts and officials said at a discussion in the city on Wednesday.
They called for controlling hypertension (HTN) through allocating necessary fund in the upcoming budget for the fiscal year (FY) 2026-27.
Furthermore, unhealthy diet, including intake of processed food, faulty lifestyle and the government failure to provide free anti-hypertensive medicines in the primary healthcare across the country for all are also contributing to the growing prevalence of hypertension, they observed.
They made the observations at a discussion ahead of the World Hypertension Day on May 17, titled "Prioritising Hypertension Control: Bangladesh Perspective" organised by PROGGA (Knowledge for Progress), with support of the Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI).
PROGGA programme officer Samiha Bintay Kamal delivered the key-note presentation while the session was chaired by Muhammad Ruhul Quddus, Bangladesh Country Lead, GHAI.
According to the Health and Morbidity Status Survey 2025 by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), hypertension ranks first among the top 10 diseases in Bangladesh.
According to the World Health Organization's 2025 report, 283,800 people in Bangladesh died from cardiovascular diseases in 2024, and 52 per cent of those deaths were attributable to hypertension.
They said that inadequate budget allocation has been hindering the uninterrupted supply of drugs across all Community Clinics and Upazila Health Complexes in the country.
"Alongside increasing budget allocation for hypertension control, it is equally important to ensure the effective implementation of the allocated budget," said Dr. Md. Enamul Haque, director general (Additional Secretary), Health Economics Unit.
He also said that the number of patients is much higher than the estimated one as so many people do not test and many of them do not even know that they are hypertension patients.
The health ministry could not spend the allocated health budget and the unused finance gets returned often.
The new government has allocated a higher Tk490 billion fund already and is going to raise the health allocation in the national budget for the upcoming fiscal year, he added, suggesting capacity enhancement and awareness.
Md. Khorshed Alam, managing director (Additional Secretary), Community Clinic Health Support Trust, said that the government is continuing its efforts to ensure uninterrupted supply of antihypertensive medicines at Community Clinics and Upazila Health Complexes.
This initiative will play a positive role in controlling hypertension.
Shamsun Naher Nahid, chief nutritionist, BIRDEM General Hospital, said that earlier they saw older people get this disease but now teens of 12-14 years get it because of unhealthy lifestyle, poor sleep, processed food intake and smoking.
Public health expert Dr. Lelin Choudhury, Prof Dr. Malay Kanti Mridha of BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health, Zahirul Alam, Executive Director, Channel 24, Prof Shafiun Nahin Shimul, Director, Institute of Health Economics, University of Dhaka spoke at the event among others.
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