DOH, PSH wants hypertension a national policy
THE DEPARTMENT of Health (DOH) together with the Philippine Society of Hypertension (PSH) and various stakeholders today launched a “Call-to-Action Forum” to make HYPERTENSION a national policy and continue to advocate and strengthen awareness activities to emphasize the importance of preventing and treating hypertension at the Conrad Hotel in Manila.
Assistant Secretary for Public Health Service Team Dr. Maria Rosario S. Vergeire stated that 12 million Filipinos has hypertension and half them are unaware that they have this disease. “It is the second cause of morality in the country and this must be addressed immediately to prevent the growing number afflicted with this disease.”
According to the 2014 World Health Organization (WHO) report on NCD country profile, most deaths in the Philippines are caused by cardiovascular diseases (33%), cancer (10%), diabetes (6%), and chronic respiratory diseases (5%).
The Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) National Nutrition Survey from 2008 to 2013 showed that there is an increasing prevalence in the following behavioral factors: diabetes from 4.8% to 5.4% and overweight among adults from 26.6% to 31.1% while decreasing trends for hypertension from 25.3% to 22.3% and current adult smokers from 31.0% to 25.4%.
Prof. Leilani B. Mercado-Asis, President of Philippine Society of Hypertension emphasized that hypertension is one of the biggest cardiovascular risk factors worldwide and causes about 7 million deaths every year and about 1.5 million suffers from its complications.
“It is for this reason that the society has partnered with the DOH including various health experts to come up with a project prevalence rate of hypertension among Filipino adults up to year 2050. The data that will be gathered will show the impact of hypertension in terms of mortality rates.”
“We will also continue to strengthen educational programs to inform health professionals and all stakeholders on preventing and controlling hypertension,” she added.
The PSH through the DOH will establish accredited HYPERTENSION CLINCS to ensure standardized, optimum and complete treatment and followup of afflicted individuals.