Varanasi 23 May 2015: Hypertension has emerged as the single-largest silent killer in the world. Speaking about World Hypertension Day, Jamuna Sewa Sadan & Hear Centre’s Director and globally renowned Dr. A.K.Tandon said, “25 per cent of the world’s adult population, ie., about 1 ARAB people suffer from blood pressure. According to World Hypertension League, about 75 lac people die across the world each year due to Hypertension-related diseases like – stroke, heart failure, aneurism, and other cardio-vascular diseases, and the main cause in all these cases is high-blood pressure.”
“In India’s 25 plus age category, over 23.1 percent males and 22.6 percent females are affected by this ailment”, he further added.
There is widespread ignorance and lack of awareness about high blood pressure and related aspects. Keeping this in mind, World Hypertension League observes 17th May as World Hypertension Day, and release various reports as mass awareness programmes to educate the masses about high-blood pressure and related ailments. World Hypertension League is a part of International Hypertension Society.
Dr. Tandon further told that over 51 percent death happen due to high blood pressure related strokes, and another 45 percent due to Coronary Artery related diseases. About 10years back (in 2004), about 12.8 percent (about 75 lac) death were directly linked to high-blood pressure. In India, about 13,90,00,000 people, which comprises 15 percent of the global death is attributed to high- blood pressure. According to a survey, more than 70 per cent of the Indian population suffers from abnormal blood pressure conditions.
While every 9th Indian suffers from high blood pressure, the ignorance and lack of awareness is so high that in spite of it being such a wide-spread ailment and maximum people suffering from it, they are still unaware of its existence within their body, especially during the initial stages when there are no outwardly apparent indications. As per estimates, about 45 percent of the patients are unaware of the existence of the ailment in their body, and even those who know about their ailment, less than 10 percent actually undergo any treatment. This is a very grace and critical situation, because of untreated, high-blood pressure and its negative effects have the potential of even causing death.
Dr. A.K.Tandon
Jamuna Sewa Sadan & Heart Centre, Varanasi
