WHO report finds uncontrolled hypertension puts over a billion people at risk

The World Health Organization’s second global report on high blood pressure has found that uncontrolled hypertension puts more than a 1.4 billion people at risk.

Yet it said that just over one in five have the condition under control either through medication or by addressing modifiable health risks.

The head of the organisation’s Management of Noncommunicable Diseases unit, Dr Alarcos Cieza, described hypertension as a global crisis.

“What this really means is that more than 1 billion people have the condition without any treatment. And for that reason, they are at risk of heart attacks, of a stroke, of kidney disease, or of getting other illnesses such as dementia,” she said.

High blood pressure is both preventable and treatable, but without urgent action millions of people will continue to die prematurely, and countries will face mounting economic losses.

Access to and the availability of essential medicines remains a challenge in low- and middle-income countries and medicines are too expensive.

From 2011 to 2025, cardiovascular diseases – including hypertension – are projected to cost them approximately $3.7 trillion, equivalent to around 2 per cent of their combined GDP.

Taking daily medication is both cost-effective and delivers a substantial return on investment, but only 30 per cent of African countries reported having all of the key medicines available.

Cieza said one of the biggest barriers is that in the population there is no awareness that hypertension is a big deal.

“The second one is that there is not enough workforce in the facilities, but also that there is not enough trained workforce, there is not a standardised protocol. There is no data.”

But she said the biggest barrier of all is that there is not the political commitment to get this crisis addressed, adding that once the commitment is there, then action will follows.

Altogether, high blood pressure caused the deaths of 11 million people, or 16% of all deaths in the world – more than any other risk factor.

While the mortality rates vary significantly across regions, 8 per cent of all deaths in the African region are attributable to high blood pressure.

The report said urgent action was required to scale up detection, treatment, and control of hypertension, especially in countries with lower resources.