By Razak Baba
In an effort to raise awareness and improve health outcomes for people living with hypertension, PATH Ghana, an international non-profit organization has supported the Ashanti Regional Health Directorate to train and support hypertension ‘Champions.’
These are influential members who are interested in and are willing to spend their time and resources in awareness creation and education to prevent and control hypertension in their communities.
This came to light at a news conference in Kumasi on May 17, 2022, to mark the 2022 World Hypertension Day.
World Hypertension Day was initiated in the year 2005 by the World Hypertension League to increase awareness for Hypertension.
Globally, May 17 is the day to commemorate this event and the theme for this year is
“Measure your blood pressure accurately, Control it, Live Longer”. This year, the theme focuses on combating low awareness rates worldwide, especially in low- to middle-income countries, and promoting accurate blood pressure measurement.
In Ghana, data captured by the Ghana Health Service shows that last year, Hypertension was the ninth cause of OPD attendance, but the second leading cause of hospital admissions in the Ashanti Region.
Additionally, there were more than 612,000 newly diagnosed cases of Hypertension in the country out of which more than 121,000 were recorded in the Ashanti region and this is one of the highest in the country.
At a press briefing in Kumasi to mark World Hypertension Day, the Ashanti Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Emmanuel Tenkorang said the Ghana Health Service remains committed to reducing the burden of Hypertension in the region and is collaborating with partners such as the Healthy Heart Africa programme to address this challenge.
Senior Technical Advisor in charge of Non-Communicable Diseases at PATH Ghana, an international nonprofit organization, Dr. Robert Yeboah said his organization has supported some influential members who are interested in and are willing to spend their time and resources in awareness creation and education to prevent and control hypertension in their various communities.
Highlight of the event was the Unveiling of opinion leaders to serve as Ambassadors to create hypertension awareness and free hypertension screening exercise at the Regional health directorate.
