DHAKA, Sept 29, 2024 (BSS) - Public health experts and heart specialists at a webinar today laid emphasis to make anti-hypertensive medicine available at the grassroots level as it could reduce the risk of heart disease to a great extent.
 
Heart disease is responsible for 34 percent of all deaths in Bangladesh, a large number of which is preventable. Availability of anti-hypertensive medicine at the grassroots level can reduce the risk of heart disease to a great extent, they said.

On the occasion of World Heart Day 2024, they highlighted these issues at a webinar "Hypertension and Cardiovascular Disease Risk", organised by research and advocacy organization PROGGA (Knowledge for Progress) with support from Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI), said a press release.

Professor Dr. Abdullah Al Shafi Majumder, Member Secretary of the Expert Panel on Health Sector Reforms and Former Director of National Institute of Cardiovascular Disease (NICVD), said that "Increased awareness programs, along with other activities, are required to control hypertension."

Professor Dr Sohel Reza Choudhury, Head of Department of Epidemiology and Research, National Heart Foundation said, "Heart disease causes over 40 percent of premature deaths in Bangladesh, and that is why controlling hypertension is the most effective way to reduce this mortality rate."

Dr Malay Kanti Mridha, Professor of BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health of BRAC University, said that "Empirical studies by region, age, and gender are highly required to accurately determine the prevalence of hypertension nationwide."

Muhammad Ruhul Quddus, Bangladesh Country Lead of GHAI, said that "Assessment of the number of hypertensive patients across the country is important to ensure the supply of anti-hypertensive medicine at the grassroots level."

Shamsun Naher Nahid, Head of Nutrition at the Department of Diet and Nutrition of BIRDEM General Hospital, said that "A healthy dietary habit is essential to control hypertension and heart disease."

ABM Zubair, Executive Director of PROGGA, also attended the webinar while Coordinator Sadia Galiba Prova delivered a key-note presentation on the prevalence of hypertensive heart disease and moderated the webinar.

People of different professions from different regions of the country participated in the webinar.

The theme of this year for the day is "Use Heart for Action."

At the webinar, it was revealed that one in every four adults in Bangladesh is suffering from hypertension.

Some 273,000 people die of cardiovascular diseases every year in Bangladesh and 54 percent of these fatalities are attributable to hypertension, according to the first Global Report on Hypertension 2023 by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The reports also revealed that half of the individuals (aged 30-79 years) with hypertension are not even aware of their condition.