Hypertension in Pakistan: What arewe going to do about it?

Abstract

Ever since the very early population surveys done by the National Institue of Cardiovascular Diseases Karachi in the sixties, there has been data available suggesting the very high prevalence of hypertension in Pakistan. These initial surveys were supplemented by other surveys done three decades ago by the PMRC and other individual workers, also suggesting the high prevalence of hypertension being around 10% of the general adult population of Pakistan. The surveys in school children and m special populations like shopkeepers and armed forces personnel added important information and again subscribed to the high prevalence of hypertension in the general public in Pakistan.The recent PMRC Pakistan health survey has come outwith, for the first time in the history of the country, definitive and representative data from all parts of Pakistan. The prevalence ofhypertension seen in variàus populations and sub-populations has reconfirmed the impressions by the earlier surveys that hypertension is a very common disorder im Pakistan.Where do we go from here? The problem and the challenge has been identified, the resources and limitations of the health delivery system and the general health and social indicators of Pakistan are well-known. What then is going to be the strategy to address this
epidemic that is upon us?It is apparent that within the resources available to us, curative efforts to control the disease once established will never be adequate. It is imperative especially for poor country like Pakistan to launch a mass preventive effort. Sporadic éffortshave been made in the past towards general population education, however, these are very inadequate. It is high time that the Government ofPakistan and each and every medical and citizen body play its irt in the mass . education effort that will be needed to create an awareness about i:-pertension, its prevention, its detection and, its adequate treatment. The recent effort to bring the entire citizenry and the medical community ofPakistan on a single platform to fight this epidemic has been made by the organization ofthe Pakistan Hypertension League.