Kano State Ministry of Health has offered free enrollment for vulnerable hypertension patients at Kano State Contributory Healthcare Management Agency (KSCHMA).
The state’s commissioner for Health, Dr Abubakar Labaran disclosed this at a press conference marking the 2024 World Hypertension Day held at the Abdullahi Wase Hospital on Friday.
He said the enrollment exercise, which would last for a week, would enable vulnerable hypertensive persons to get free or subsidized screening and medication.
According to Yusuf, the enrollment is part of the state government’s resolve to reduce the ailment to the minimum as Kano has the highest number of hypertension patients in the country with 28.5 percent of its population being hypertensive.
“An estimated 1.28 billion adults aged 30-79 years worldwide have hypertension. It was estimated that the global burden of hypertension will increase to more than 31 percent of the world’s adult population by 2025.
“The prevalence of hypertension in Nigeria is 27.6 percent of the population and it was found that in Kano, the most prevalent Cardiovascular risk factor was hypertension which is 28.5 percent out of which nearly two-thirds of these hypertensives were newly discovered.
“Hypertension is a major cause of a range of health problems such as strokes, heart attacks and kidney disease among others.
“Many people who suffer from hypertension are not aware that they have it as there can be no symptoms. Often, people only find out after suffering a heart attack or stroke,” he stated.
The commissioner however noted that hypertension could be managed and its consequences avoided or delayed with physical activity, healthy diet, maintaining a normal body weight, avoiding tobacco use, regular screening, use of medication and treatment of complications.
He said since the inception of the current administration, the state government in collaboration with partners and other stakeholders have made remarkable achievements including free screening of patients and provision of subsidized medications for hypertensive patients across the state hospitals.
The commissioner commended the state governor, Abba Yusuf for what he described as immense support to the health sector.