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The Ministry of Health is in the process of developing a training module for non-communicable diseases in the country in a bid to address the growing burden of hypertension and its complications. Head of Directorate of Health Standards, Quality assurance and Regulations Pacifica Onyancha Wednesday said the move would ensure access to healthy lifestyle advice and screening right at people’s doorsteps.
He said the module would help health workers and volunteers even at the dispensary and health centre level to offer basic hypertension care and to institute appropriate and timely referrals where need be.
“The actions that can be taken when detected early are way cheaper and less risky for patients, than interventions like dialysis or surgery that may be needed when hypertension is diagnosed late,” Onyancha said during the World Hypertension Day proceedings in Nairobi.
This year’s theme is ‘Know Your Numbers’ and is a call to action for people to get screened as a vital step towards prevention of many, often irreversible complications linked to Hypertension. The condition has been on the rise, with the World Health Organisation estimating that every three in ten persons is living with high blood pressure.
In Kenya, one in four Kenyans is living with hypertension with more than half of Kenyans having never had their blood pressure measured.
Over 90 per cent of those undergoing treatment for hypertension have not attained control of the disease.
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