Hypertension: 76 million deaths could be averted by 2050 if treatment coverage improves, says WHO

Around four in five people with hypertension are not adequately treated, the World Health Organization has warned in its first report on the “devastating” global impact of high blood pressure.1However, it said that countries could still “win the race against this silent killer” and could avert 76 million deaths by 2050 if they “scale up” treatment coverage so that even just half of the people with hypertension have it under control.This could also prevent 120 million strokes, 79 million heart attacks, and 17 million cases of heart failure, WHO estimated.“Hypertension control programmes remain neglected, under-prioritised, and vastly underfunded,” said WHO’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “Strengthening hypertension control must be part of every country’s journey towards universal health coverage, based on well functioning, equitable, and resilient health systems, built on a foundation of primary healthcare.”From 1990 to 2019 the number of people with hypertension worldwide doubled from 650 million to…
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