Correspondence from Western Region

A member of the Ghanaian Society of Cardiology, Dr. George Peprah is calling for a national programme for hypertension so that the nation’s attention can be geared towards reducing the disease in the country. According to him, the number of people dying from hypertension and its related complication is more than all infections put together worldwide.

Dr. George Peprah said this when he was speaking to GhanaWeb in an interview on the World Hypertension Day celebration on Wednesday May 17, 2023.

The theme for this year’s celebration is “Measure your blood pressure accurately, control it, live longer” which highlights the need to increase awareness and access for all people to have quality hypertension services.

The day is to raise awareness and promote hypertension prevention, detection and control.

According to the World Health organisation, “an estimated 46% of people with hypertension globally are unaware that they have the condition, and less than half of all adults with hypertension are diagnosed and treated. Just 1 in 5 adults with hypertension have it under control, meaning 80% are at significant risk of complications, including heart attack, stroke, irregular heart-beat and kidney damage”.

Dr. Prempeh noted that though the Ghana Health Service has a unit for
hypertension, it’s not built like the AIDS control programme, but when it is well organised it will compel people to go and check their status at a particular age that will help in reducing the rate at which hypertension and diabetes are killing people.

He added that this control programme should not take care of only hypertension, but all communicable disease like stroke, heart attack, heart failure, kidney failure, blurred vision among others as some health problems associated with hypertension.

He said there is nothing to show when one has hypertension, unlike malaria but the only way to know of your status is to check your pressure if one is within the normal range of 120/80 or below.

“If you check and you pressure is beyond the normal, you have to rush to the hospital so that you can be put on treatment in order to control it”, he added.

He stressed that hypertension has no cure as at now, so people who are put on treatment are to take the drug everyday.