Hypertension killing 296 Malawians daily
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says hypertension is killing 108 000 Malawians annually or about 296 daily, making it one of the silent serious killers in modern times.
In A report titled ‘Global report on hypertension: The race against a silent killer’, WHO has compiled data on the far-reaching consequences of uncontrolled hypertension, including heart attacks, strokes and premature death along with substantial economic losses for communities and countries.
The report comes after the recent Malawi National STEPwise Survey for Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) Risk Factors reported that only four in 10 adults in Malawi have ever had screening for hypertension.
The WHO report states that of the 1.2 million people aged 30 to 79, 38 percent are diagnosed, but only 24 percent are treated while a meagre 11 percent have hypertension controlled.
Reads the report: “In order to achieve a 50 percent control rate, 508 000 more people with hypertension would need to be effectively treated. If the progress scenario were achieved, 23 000 deaths would be averted by 2040.”
Risk factors include mean population salt intake of adults aged 25 years and above which is at seven percent, tobacco use of those 15 years and above currently at 11 percent, obesity at six percent for those 18 years and above, but also physical inactivity for adults aged 18 years and above standing at 16 percent.
Other factors are the total alcohol per capita consumption (APC) for those aged 15 years and above at three litres. This is defined as the total (sum of recorded and unrecorded alcohol) amount of alcohol consumed per person (15 years of age or older) over a calendar year, in litres of pure alcohol.
The report also observed that Malawi does not have national targets for blood pressure, salt consumption, but also lacks a functioning system for generating reliable cause-specific mortality data on a routine basis.
In a recent interview, Dr Kondwani Katundu, a Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (Kuhes) senior lecturer and researcher working with the School of Global and Public Health, noted the huge challenge on hypertension.
He said based on the recent Malawi National STEPwise Survey, for those with a previous high blood pressure reading, only three in 10 receive medical treatment prescribed from a health facility, a situation which shows a huge gap in both diagnosis and treatment.
In February, new evidence from Kuhes showed that a quarter of drugs taken by patients with bacterial infections and high blood pressure in the country were below standard.
At that time, Ministry of Health director of health technical support services Godfrey Kadewere said low-quality and misrepresented medicines is a global challenge that has disproportionately affected Malawi and the rest of Africa.
