Worldwide, around 1.3 billion individuals have hypertension, the silent killer usually driven by obesity, which heightens the risk for heart disease, stroke and kidney disease, stated the World Health Organization (WHO).

Hypertension can be diagnosed by blood pressure monitoring, and can be managed with low-cost drugs. Yet around half of the affected individuals are not aware of their condition which thus remains untreated, noted the WHO and Imperial College London in a study published in The Lancet. The study revealed that though the rates of hypertension have changed slightly in 3 decades, the caseload has moved to the lower-income countries.

Majid Ezzati, professor of global environmental health at Imperial College London, stated that hypertension is very much a condition of poverty… (Reuters, August 25, 2021)