Since 12-million Filipinos have hypertension and half of them are unaware that they have this disease, the Department of Health together with the Philippine Society of Hypertension and various stakeholders on Tuesday launched a “Call-to-Action Forum” making hypertension a national policy.
DOH assistant secretary for Public Health Service Team Dr. Maria Rosario S. Vergeire said the move would strengthen awareness activities to emphasize the importance of preventing and treating hypertension.
“It is the second cause of mortality in the country and this must be addressed immediately to prevent the growing number afflicted with this disease,” she said.
According to the 2014 World Health Organization report on NCD country profile, most deaths in the Philippines are caused by cardiovascular diseases (33 percent), cancer (10 percent), diabetes (6 percent), and chronic respiratory diseases (5 percent).
The Food and Nutrition Research Institute National Nutrition Survey from 2008 to 2013 showed that there is an increasing prevalence in the following behavioral factors: diabetes from 4.8 percent to 5.4 percent and overweight among adults from 26.6 percent to 31.1 percent while decreasing trends for hypertension from 25.3 percent to 22.3 percent and current adult smokers from 31.0 percent to 25.4 percent.
Prof. Leilani B. Mercado-Asis, President of the Philippine Society of Hypertension, explained that hypertension is one of the biggest cardiovascular risk factors worldwide and causes about seven-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,” she said.
She added that 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 said.
The PSH through the DOH will establish accredited Hypertension Clinics to ensure standardized, optimum and complete treatment and follow-up of afflicted individuals.