Arranging free blood pressure drug for the poor

Hypertension or high blood pressure is one of the major health conditions that contributes to the rising number of premature deaths in Bangladesh. According to the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey, the incidence of high blood pressure among people aged 35 years and above increased significantly between 2011 and 2017-18. And it has risen from 20 per cent to 34 per cent for men and from 32 per cent to 45 per cent for women.
What is more worrying is that most patients with high blood pressure (64 per cent) do not take any medicine. Studies have shown that one should take blood pressure medications throughout one's life. But for most people it is not possible. And many of them stop taking medicines after their blood pressure gets normal. This increases the risk of heart attack or stroke. In this backdrop, Bangladesh has recently observed World Hypertension Day on May 17.
High stress, unhealthy lifestyle and eating habits all contribute to hypertension. However, we can significantly reduce the number of premature deaths if we can take care of our heart health, and keep blood pressure in check. Those who are suffering from high blood pressure should take medicines regularly following consultation with their physicians. It is unfortunate that many people in our country cannot afford those medicines and simply give them up. The government has already taken an appreciable measure of providing medicines for high blood pressure free of cost in some 80 non-communicable disease (NCD) corners across the country. The number of such centres should be increased and poor patients need to be treated free of cost.

Ashikujaman Syed,
Research Assistant,
Bioinformatics Research Lab,
Center for Research Innovation and Development (CRID),
syedashikujaman@yahoo.com