A Consultant General Physician, Dr Gerald Chinasa, has recommended the establishment of Blood Pressure (BP) checkpoints, where people can easily check blood pressure, to checkmate the rise in hypertension among the populace.
He made the recommendation in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Lagos. According to him, there was need for people to invest in procuring BP machine and establish BP checking points.
This, he said, would encourage regular and random check of blood pressure numbers among the populace.
He said people can have BP checking points, just the way they have POS points, saying that it will go a long way to encourage regular check on BP and thereby prevent complications/sudden deaths resulting from hypertension.
âPeople can actually invest privately in things like this; we can have BP checking points just the way we have POS points/centres. But, it is all about really sensitising people on the importance of these things.
âSomebody can buy a BP apparatus of N20,000 or N30,000, and sit by the roadside waiting for people to come so that he/she can check their BP for a N100 for instance. People need to know that the N100 is worth paying to know your BP.
âBy so doing, those who have hypertension would have it in their minds that they have the condition and then, probably, start taking medications,â Chinasa said.
He identified race and gender as major risk factors to the disease, explaining that hypertension was a âBlackmanâs diseaseâ
He emphasised the need for mass hypertension/BP check in the communities, in order to detect those who were hypertensive and those who were not, so that more attention would be paid to those who are hypertensive.
Chinasa, who described hypertension as âa silent killerâ, said that people did not need to have symptoms before knowing that they were hypertensive.
âThe most important thing is for them to check, monitor their BP and find out. The reason why is called âa silent killerâ is because it doesnât give symptoms, but the damages are being done at the background,â Chinasa said.
He decried that a lot of people were naive about their hypertensive condition, saying that such people moved around with the condition not knowing that they have it.
He recommended that every family should have the BP testing apparatus, to enable the adults in the family keep a regular check on their BP.
He said, âThe truth is that anybody who is 35 years and above should have a BP apparatus at home whether youâre hypertensive or not because itâs a Blackmanâs disease.
âThe prevalence is much higher these days; we find people who do not even have family history of hypertension, but they are having it. And there are several risk factors to it; one of it is race and then, the male gender. These are risk factors one cannot do anything about.
âSo, let every adult whether man or woman have a BP apparatus at home and monitor. It is better you are regularly checking and itâs not there, than, it is there and you are moving around without even knowing it is s there.
(NAN)
