Report says Pakistan becomes world’s fifth largest country with high blood pressure patients.
ISLAMABAD, Oct 5 (Asia Free Press): Hypertension has alarmingly increased in Pakistan since 2010 as nine out of 20 are suffering from this disease, a new study revealed.
Hypertension is another name for high blood pressure. It can lead to severe health complications and increase the risk of heart disease, stroke, and sometimes death.
The latest study released by the Pakistan Hypertension League (PHL) showed that the number of affected people with hypertension or high blood pressure has been increased across the country.
The report said that nine out of every 20 people in Pakistan were affected by the disease in one way or the other and the number had increased at an alarming rate since 2010 when the affectees were only 13% in Pakistan.
Currently, people as young as 18 years of age were now being affected by hypertension or high blood pressure that led them to heart attack, kidney failure, blindness, stroke, and many other diseases.
Doctor Wagma Shams, a Pediatric specialist at Mardan Medical Complex in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province told Asia Free Press that even sometimes kids from newborn to the age of 14 could suffer from this disease because of kidneys related problems.
“Mostly, the kids suffering this disease who brought up in unhygienic conditions which lead to high blood pressure and uncleaning of urine, usage of diapers for a long time heads towards urine infection which damaged their kidney arteries,” she said.
The report mentioned that Pakistan has become the world’s fifth-largest country with high blood pressure patients.
“It is therefore not surprising that rates of cardiovascular disease (CVD) are also increasing. There is a lack of good national data on CVD, but the World Health Organization reports that 58% of all deaths in Pakistan are due to non-communicable diseases, and half of these are due to CVD”.
Dr. Mujahid Gillani, at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) Islamabad, said that Hypertension over the years has become a disease of the younger age group.
“With the sedentary lifestyle in practice and worse eating habits with an extremely busy life, no time for exercise, hypertension is being found in people less than 40 years old”, he said.
“The medications used for high blood pressure are of different class and types but the most important thing for essential hypertension is exercise followed by dietary restrictions such as low salt intake, bad lipid control, and stress-free environment”, he added.
Research has shown that more than 20% of cases of pediatric illness in women are caused by high blood pressure, which can lead to death.
Doctors advised that patients with high blood pressure should abstain from tobacco and other drugs.
“If patients and people who have not yet been diagnosed with the disease change their daily routine despite their environment, there is a strong possibility that the disease can be controlled,” according to the report.
