Srinagar, May 17: The National Health Mission, Jammu and Kashmir would diagnose an estimated nine lakh hypertensive patients and will ensure their continuum care and follow-up, officials said.
In this regard, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India in collaboration with the World Health Organization Wednesday organized an event on World Hypertension Day, G20 Co-Branded event at New Delhi which was attended by senior officers and officials from Jammu and Kashmir.
Administrative Secretary, Health and Medical Education (H&ME) Department, Bhupinder Kumar, Mission Director (MD), NHM, J&K, Ayushi Sudan, State Nodal Officer NHM, Dr M Shafi Koka and WHO CVHO, Dr Asif attended the event.
“We would diagnose nine lakh people with hypertension and we want to achieve 100 percent targets which include hypertension, diabetes, and cancers. We will shortly start it,” the MD NHM said.
“We will be going for enhanced quality screening of NCDs including hypertension and will ensure their quantum care and regular follow up of the patients. This year we are going to start it early this year to achieve the targets,” she said.
State Nodal Officer NHM J&K, Dr M Shafi Koka said there is 20 percent prevalence of hypertension in Jammu and Kashmir which will make around 9 lakh people among the 30 plus population adding that these people need to be diagnosed at the earliest and put on standard treatment. He said the NHM will be focusing on a 30 plus population and screening will be done at a larger scale.
He said in India 75 million suffer from hypertension and such patients are not detected on time due to several reasons.
“In Jammu and Kashmir, last year the population of 30 plus was 45 lakhs and we screened 35 lakh people for hypertension and this year we will screen all 45 lakh people,” he said.
The State Nodal Officer said hypertension is the leading cause of health and in order to prevent mortality, compressive primary healthcare and National Program for Control of Non-Communicable Diseases are working together in this direction.
“We will be identifying nine lakh people till 2025 and they will be treated and their follow-up will be done. Last year, we identified 2.2 lakh hypertensive patients who were put on treatment,” he said.
The SNO said that all the medicines are available at sub-centres and PHCs and patients do not have to move to secondary and tertiary care hospitals for drugs.
“We have a designated NCD portal where we capture all the patients. We have so far enrolled 48 lakh people. We are working for follow-up and continuum of care,” he said.
World Hypertension Day is observed every May 17 to raise awareness and promote hypertension prevention, detection and control. High blood pressure is the main risk factor for developing cardiovascular disease.
