By Yakubu Salisu
The Kano State Commissioner of Health, Dr. Abubakar Labaran Yusuf said recent studies revealed 27 percent of people in the state are Hypertensive.
These numbers, he said means in every ten persons, 2.7 are Hypertensive, while 33 percent of Nigerians are Hypertensive in general, hence the need for people in the state to accord special attention to their blood pressure (BP) to live long.
The state Commissioner of health, Dr. Abubakar Labaran Yusuf, made this known on Monday in Kano, during activities to mark the 2025 World Hypertension Day with the theme; measure your blood pressure accurately, controll it, live longer.
According to him, hypertension, a non-communicable disease is a silent killer contributing to approximately 29 percent of deaths in Nigeria, with cardiovascular diseases alone responsible for around 11 percent.
He said, the call became pertinent as Kano is not exempted from the burden with rising cases of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases, cancers, sicle cell disease among others.
In view of this, Labaran, disclosed that a Non-communicable Disease (NCD) Technical Working Group (TWG) has been established with the aim of providing strategic direction, strengthen coordination, policy implementation and stakeholder engagement to enhance prevention, treatment and control.
“While we join the rest of the world to commemorate hypertension day, people must be cautioned about possible complications of neglecting their blood pressure.
“The world is seeing increase in cases of heart failure, stroke, kidney failure and irreversible damages to other vital internal organs due to issues associated to rise in blood pressure”.
“We encourage regular BP check up and at least twice in a year to avoid complications resorting to avoidable deaths”.
Dr. Abubakar further reveal that, disturbingly, eight percent of those suffering from the disease die every year from what could have been avoided if detected earlier.
“Early detection and commencement of treatment prevent complications which means one has a better chance of living longer if he or she goes for frequent screening”.
The commissioner further added that Gov. Abba Kabir Yusuf prioritizes the healthcare sector with especial emphasis on Non-communicable diseases as the state recently embarked on mass screening of 158,235 people out of which 4,747 were diagnosed as diabetics and 26,900 were diagnosed new hypertensive and were unaware of these diseases and are now on treatment.
Remarkably, he added that the state government in the last two years has scaled up care delivery on hypertension particularly at the primary healthcare centres which are closer to the people and scattered across the state.
“We have also trained 412 focal persons from 208 primary healthcare facilities in the state to manage hypertension and it’s crisis along side mental health issues such as depression, etc”.
“Just last week, the Governor, Alh. Abba Kabir Yusuf launched the ‘The Abba Care Diabetic Support’ during which strips and and other instruments for diagnosis were distributed free and same has been done for hypertension.
“All these are testament of commitment to fighting hypertension. Avoid too much salt, exercise, avoid smoking and alcohol, live a healthy lifestyle and go to hospital timely as the government of Abba Kabir Yusuf is committed to reducing the burden of hypertension and other diseases in the state”, Labaran added.