The general director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Jarbas Barbosa, warned this Thursday that the problems of high blood pressure are growing exponentially in Latin America to the point of causing some two million deaths that could be prevented each year.
The head of the regional organization offered, along with other PAHO experts, a perspective of this “silent disease” of which it is estimated that in regions such as Central America and the Caribbean it prevails in up to 20% of the population, and that in adults below 60 years becomes a trigger for other health problems by not being diagnosed. Some 180 million Latin Americans are hypertensive, according to PAHO estimates.
“Hypertension is so prevalent that it is in millions of people; 18% of the population of the Americas has hypertension, when we go to people who are 65 years of age or older, this reaches 50%; the big problem is that a large part of these people do not know they have hypertension”, said the head of PAHO, during a press conference to address the problem ahead of World Hypertension Day, which is commemorated on May 17.
The head of the Noncommunicable Diseases Unit of PAHO, Silvana Luciani, emphasized that high blood pressure triggers other health problems such as diabetes and coronary diseases that complicate the clinical pictures of patients.
PAHO estimates that high blood pressure is the main risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, “which are the leading cause of death in the region” and which, together, “cause some two million deaths each year.”
More than a third of men and a quarter of women between the ages of 30 and 79 are unaware that they are hypertensive, and if they are diagnosed, a third of them do not have this medical condition under control.
Barbosa called on the governments of Latin American countries to pay attention to this health problem and has ensured that “efforts must be accelerated to expand and ensure equitable access to hypertension care,” and put it as a focus of primary health care.
The risk in food
PAHO studies, part of the World Health Organization (WHO), indicate that the growing increase in hypertension is associated with significant changes in diet and lifestyle such as a sedentary lifestyle.
Processed and ultra-processed products, and the intake of salt and saturated fats would be behind the obesity that already affects 25% of the population in the Americas and this, in turn, generates conditions for hypertension.
The head of PAHO said that with these data in hand, the governments of the region have the task of joining other countries, such as Chile, which have paid special attention to the labeling of prepared food products so that citizens are sufficiently aware warning of the risks in sodium concentrates and other compounds offered by the food industry.
“If there are no public policies for access to healthy food,” said Barbosa, “we are facing a serious problem that must receive attention and a multisectoral approach.”
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