In what is now a first, the World Health Organisation (WHO) released a report on the devastating global impact of high blood pressure, which showed that 247.000 Moroccans lost their lives to the “silent killer” in 2019.
The report showed that the age-standardized prevalence of hypertension among Moroccan adults aged between 30 and 79 went up by 35% in the year of the study.
“In order to achieve a 50% control rate, 2.4 million more people with hypertension would need to be effectively treated,” said the report.
The disease’s prevalence among men falls at a rate of 35% while in women, it reached 36% in the same year in Morocco.
If WHO’s progress scenario to combat the fatal disease gets achieved, 223.000 deaths would be averted by 2040.
The organization noted that the number of people living with hypertension or taking medication for hypertension doubled between 1990 and 2019, from 650 million to 1.3 billion.
However, nearly half of people with hypertension globally are currently unaware of their condition.
What’s alarming is that more than three-quarters of these adults in question live in low- and middle-income countries.
The primary care level of a nation’s national health benefits program should prioritize the prevention, early detection, and good management of hypertension as three of the most cost-effective interventions in healthcare.
Improved hypertension treatment programs have an approximate 18:1 economic benefit-to-cost ratio, underlined WHO.
The organization emphasized that between now and 2050, 76 million fatalities, 120 million strokes, 79 million heart attacks, and 17 million episodes of heart failure could be avoided if more people with hypertension were receiving adequate treatment at rates seen in high-performing nations.
The report thoroughly provided data on the state of the disease all over the world, helped suggest a protocol to follow, and advised the international community on patient-centered services to reduce barriers preventing them from getting help.
It also underscored the pressing need for a user-centered, simple information system to facilitate the rapid recording of essential patient-level data, reduce healthcare worker data entry burden, and support rapid scale-up while maintaining or improving the quality of care.