The increasing rate of hypertension, coupled with public ignorance about the disease in the Lower Manya Krobo municipality, has become a worry to health experts.
Dr. Christian Kwakye, Physician in charge of handling hypertension cases at the Atua government hospital explains to the media what his outfit is doing to get the community involved in a routine check of blood pressure to know their numbers.
A study of the global disease burden identified high blood pressure as the leading single risk factor accounting for 9.4 million deaths globally in 2010.
In Ghana, it is estimated that only 4.1 per cent of hypertensive patients control their hypertension.
The disease seems to be very high in the Lower Manya Krobo municipality of the Eastern region.
Unfortunately, a very large number of people in the communities are ignorant of the disease leading to its increase.
The community-based hypertension improvement project seeks to address the large burden of hypertension in Ghana through the testing of community-based model that engages the private sector and utilizes ICTs to control hypertension.
It is a three year project which started in 2015 in the Lower Manya Krobo municipality.
The purpose of the project was to improve the control of hypertension in Lower Manya Krobo.
The Ghana Health Service and its NOVARTIS partners from the UK were at the Atua government hospital and Oborpa health clinic to evaluate the progress of the project.
Dr. Christian Kwakye explains the project is making impact as many people has become aware of the disease and are visiting the facility to check their blood pressure.
He hope to see more community members come for routine review and take treatment seriously and allayed public fears on life-long medication to survive.
Rebecca Dirks, senior technical officer of NOVARTIS was happy about the progress of the project, urging other partners especially, Ghana health service to intensify public awareness creation on the improvement control of hypertension.
Derby Mangotey said the project is hoping to have one thousand affected people on its treatment program within the three years.
The evaluation team visited a hypertensive patient at Oborpa and some license chemical shops which are also partners.
Source: Ebenezer Ayeh/UTV Eastern Regional Correspondent
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