Worried by the increase in the mortality rate of hypertension in Nigeria, the Federal Ministry of health has roll out National Hypertension Control Initiative (NHCI) in Kano.
The project which is being piloted in Kano and Ogun states is designed to provide free screening for early detection and care management to effectively check high mortality occasioned by the killer disease in the country.
Available date from World Health Organisation (WHO), said Cardiovascular disease of which hypertension is a subset remains the major non-communicable disease and world’s number one leading cause of death.
Similar systematic review with a meta-analysis conducted by the Federal ministry of health in collaboration with WHO in 2018 put the prevalence rate of hypertension at 31.2 percent and hypertensive heart disease at 27 percent in the country.
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In Kano, statistic from the state ministry of health put the prevalence rate of hypertension at 35 percent with thousands of sufferers died annually.
Flagging off the project, which is being funded by World Health Organisation, Resolve to Save Lives and supported by Kano state government and UNICEF, permanent secretary Federal ministry of health, Ahmad Abdullahi explained that the implementation will roll back in the franchise states for six months after which states will take ownership.
Represented by a director in the ministry, Dr. Ene Obong, the permanent secretary explained that government is concerned by the mortality rate especially in high populated states, stressed that the new initiative will be conducted at primary healthcare centres for easy accessibility.
A representative of Resolve to Save Lives, Dr. Kufor Osi said the partnership was part of saving 100 million lives initiative on cardiovascular sufferers which was flagged of in 2017.
Dr. Kufor disclosed that Resolve to Save Lives is committing technical expertise, hypertension screening Machines and prescriptive drugs to primary healthcare centres where the project would be implemented.
Executive secretary, Kano state Primary Healthcare Board, Dr. Hussain Tijjani restated the readiness of the state government to implement the initiative with total dedication to control management and health care of hypertension in Kano.
Dr Tijani disclosed that the pilot scheme will take effect from across PHC’s in six local government areas of the state, for a free screening, management and dispense of drugs to patients.
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