Hoge bloeddruk...in 2025 een wereldwijde epidemie

Instances of uncontrolled hypertension will rise dramatically unless governments take immediate and wide-ranging corrective action. This is said by three international health experts in a report which is signed by 14 leading medical groups and voluntary health organizations. The report High Blood Pressure and Health Policy examined the serious medical, economic and human health consequences of high blood pressure. The prediction is that there will be a 60% rise over the next 18 years in the number of people suffering from high blood pressure. This means an estimated 1.56 billion people worldwide could be affected by 2025. Today about one billion people globally and 72 million Americans have high blood pressure. Besides these figures the report warns that in developing countries, the number of people with hypertension could rise by 80% to 1.15 billion. This means that almost three- quarters of people with high blood pressure will be in the developing countries by 2025.

This is an alarming epidemic that needs immediate attention by Congress and this Administration. The current healthcare system cannot support the growing cost burden -- we must review existing high blood pressure programs and identify areas for improved efficiency

Healthcare is for every country a hot topic because of the ever rising costs and the average age of humans is still rising. So there must change a lot within healthcare (globally) to prevent an uncontrollable crisis within the branche

This report should serve as a wake-up call for all of us. The devastating toll that high blood pressure has had not only on Americans, but people across the world, can be significantly reduced if we focus our attention and efforts

The report gives five tips for governments to deal with the problem of blood pressure:

1. Recognize high blood pressure as a global epidemic and a major public health priority.
2. Achieve global consensus-standard goals for managing high blood pressure.
3. Empower family doctors and other front-line healthcare professionals as the first line of global defense against high blood pressure. The report calls for more effective community prevention and asks that primary care nurses and other healthcare professionals receive effective training to play an active role in educating and managing high blood pressure patients.
4. Provide people with high blood pressure education and treatment options that take into account the difficulties in adhering to hypertension regimens.
5. Conduct new, long-term clinical and epidemiological studies to measure the costs and benefits of achieving a more ambitious blood pressure treatment goal and to define risk management strategies that address emerging demographic trends.

I think this is a big problem and healthcare must be more on the agendas of our governments. Otherwise the future of healthcare and our future is a very dark one.

More information: Medical News