Madhya Pradesh: Hypertension: Major Cause Of Premature Death

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Hypertension is considered one of the major causes of premature death in India. Although easy to treat, if left uncontrolled and untreated, it can lead to heart attack and stroke, chronic kidney disease etc. It is estimated that one in every four adults in India has hypertension and the situation is no different in Madhya Pradesh, where about 22.5% females and 25.9% males suffer due to HTN against national figure of 21.3% and 24% respectively.

Uncontrolled blood pressure is one of the main risk factors for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) such as heart attacks and stroke, and are responsible for one-third of total deaths in India. Despite that only 7% women and 6% men who have hypertension take medicines in India. Keeping this in view, the workshop on the rising burden of NCDs & prevention and care of Hypertension was organised jointly by National Centre for Human Settlements & Environment (NCHSE) and Consumer VOICE, New Delhi, at (EPCO) office in the city on Wednesday.

The chief guest, CMHO, Bhopal, Dr Prabhakar Tiwari, said people in rural India believe that as they work hard and therefore they can’t suffer from hypertension. He said that this was a misconception as hypertension is prevalent equally in urban and rural India and that screening of hypertensive individuals was crucial to prevent morbidity and mortality associated with hypertension.

Professor and Head Department of Pulmonary Medicine, AIIMS Bhopal, Dr Abhishek Goyal said that obstruction in breathing during sleep was a serious disorder. About one billion people suffer from the disorder worldwide.