Havana, May 17 (Prensa Latina) Cuban health authorities work to control arterial hypertension (AHT), after several years of progress in identifying patients with this disease, which affects almost a third of the population.
Esther Pallarol, a specialist at the National Epidemiology Department of the Cuban Ministry of Public Health, told Prensa Latina today that the work done is to control the disease, she said.
Now the main challenge is not to identify patients with high blood pressure, but to control them, she said on the occasion of the World Hypertension Day, held every May 17.
Cuba is the country in the region with more controlled patients, with 33 percent, after Canada and the United States, she said.
AHT, considered one of the risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, affects 30.9 percent of the population, she said.
For these reasons, the island is part of a global project aimed at reducing risk factors, such as sedentary lifestyle, smoking, among others.
It consists, she said, of standardizing the treatment, that is, developing a specific algorithm, and follow up.
‘Know Your Blood Pressure’ is the motto of World Hypertension Day 2017, sponsored by the World and Pan American Health Organization.
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