This World Health Day, April 7, 2013, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and partners focus on the global problem of high blood pressure.
Though it affects more than one in three adults worldwide, it remains largely hidden.
Many people do not know they have high blood pressure because it does not always cause symptoms. As a result, it leads to more than nine million deaths every year, including about half of all deaths due to heart disease and stroke.
The ultimate goal of World Health Day 2013 is to reduce heart attacks and strokes. Specific objectives of the campaign are:
• to raise awareness of the causes and consequences of high blood pressure;
• to provide information on how to prevent high blood pressure and related complications;
• to encourage adults to check their blood pressure and to follow the advice of health-care professionals;
• to encourage self-care to prevent high blood pressure;
• to make blood pressure measurement affordable to all; and
• to incite national and local authorities to create enabling environments for healthy behaviours.