World Health Organization study shows more suffering from hypertension
(KYMA, KECY/ NBC News) - The World Health Organization said this week that nearly 1.3 billion people globally suffer from hypertension.
Hypertension is a silent killer often driven by obesity that increased the risk of heart disease, stroke and kidney disease.
Hypertension can easily be diagnosed by monitoring blood pressure and treated with low-cost drugs, but half of the people affected are unaware of their condition which is left untreated.
The study by WHO and Imperial College London, published in the Lancet, said that while hypertension rates have changed little in 30 years, the caseload has shifted to lower-income countries while wealthy nations have brought it largely under control.
"We know that the treatment is cheap, it's low cost medicines. But there is a need to include them in the UHC (universal health coverage) so this is not a cost for the single patient and their families, it has to be covered by the insurance system," said Director of WHO's department of Noncommunicable Diseases, Bente Mikkelsen.
About 18 million people died in 2019 from cardiovascular diseases, accounting for one in three global deaths with hypertension being a major factor in that, according to the WHO.
The WHO said apart from genetic risk for hypertension, there are more "modifiable risk factors" linked to people's lifestyle. These include unhealthy diets, physical inactivity, tobacco and alcohol consumption, uncontrolled diabetes and being overweight.
