9-18-09, 9:26 am
SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Cuba, Sept 17 (acn) – Guaranteeing a better therapeutic attention for patients suffering from hypertension and updating specialists in the field are among the priorities of the 3rd Caribbean Congress on Hypertension that began in this city on Thursday.
The event, which will deepen into themes like hypertension in the elderly and refractory hypertension (that can’t be controlled by medicaments), and will include a practical demonstration at the Céspedes Park, will run until September19.
Participants in the forum will be accompanied by doctors, nurses and assistants from the Primary Health Care Program and hospitals, which will show the population how to take the blood pressure, and give educational talks about the disease.
María Eugenia García, President of the event’s Organizing Committee explained ACN the need for the population to check their blood pressure periodically and that those who suffer from hypertension should adopt measures to keep it under control, as an alternative to prevent serious consequences.
She said that one of the most important measures diagnosed patients can take is to make changes in their life styles, which includes weight control and the elimination of obesity whenever possible, the increase of physical activity and the elimination or reduction of alcohol consumption.
Recently, Orlando Landrove, head of the National Program for the Prevention of Non-Transmissible Diseases, informed that 90 percent of the island’s mortality, the largest amount of disabilities, and the greatest expenses in the field of health in the country are caused by that disease.
According to a report by Cuba’s Juventud Rebelde newspaper, 33 percent of Cubans of 15 years of age and beyond living in urban areas, and 20 percent of residents in rural ones, suffer from high blood pressure, which is currently a prioritized task for the Public Health Ministry.
Some 7 million people die in the world every year as a consequence of inadequate control of high blood pressure.
From the Cuban News Agency
