The federal ministry of health in partnership with Resolve to Save Lives (an International Non-Governmental Organization) has launched a six-month pilot health intervention programme with a view to addressing the menace of hypertension and other cardiovascular diseases in Kano state.
Over 35 percent of population of the state are said to be at risk of the disease.
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The programme seeks to strengthen the management of hypertension in primary healthcare centres in the state, targeting adults from 18 years and above with a view to identifying persons with traces of the disease for proper and holistic treatment.
Speaking at the flag-off of the programme, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Health, A. M Abdullahi described the disease as one of the leading causes of premature deaths, accounting for 11 percent of deaths from Non-Communicable Diseases in the country.
Represented by Ene Obong, a top official from the ministry, Abdullahi urged the residents of Kano metropolis to always be proactive by taking appropriate diet and regular medical checks ups.
He said, “Systematic review with meta-analysis conducted by the federal ministry of Health in collaboration with WHO in 2018 found the prevalence of cardiovascular disease with hypertension to be 31.2%, hypertensive heart diseases 27.6 %, Cardiomyopathies 11.5% and ischemic heart diseases at 0.7%.
Abdullahi explained that the prevalence of heart diseases could have been higher if there were proper diagnosis and documentations conducted routinely, saying, “It was in combating this challenge of inadequate documentation that the Resolve to Save Lives is supporting the Federal Ministry of Health in collaboration with WHO to implement the National Hypertension Control Initiative in Kano and Ogun states before scale up to other parts of the country.”
Dr Kufor Osi of Resolve to Save Lives, says the focus of the organization in Nigeria is to improve hypertension control at the primary healthcare level.
He said “hypertension is the leading cause of death all over the world, is responsible for over 10m deaths.
He said cardiovascular diseases of which hypertension is one is responsible for 10 percent of all the deaths in Nigeria every year, adding that about 230, 000 people die annually from the disease.
Earlier in his opening remarks Dr Imam Wadda Bello, the Director Medical Service Kano State Primary Healthcare Management Board, while appealing to the residents to utilize the opportunity to access free medical service, said six primary healthcare centres have been selected from three senatorial zones of the state so as to make the programme accessible to the people.
“We are hoping that with this programme we are going to manage hypertension and create awareness especially relating to its positive agents, you know hypertension is a silent killer, it is one of the major cardiovascular and non-communicable disease we have here” he added.
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