2023-05-13 10:27:00
In Belgium, it is estimated that one in four adults suffers from high blood pressure. Hypertension is also the leading risk factor for death, responsible for approximately 15,000 deaths each year in Belgium, and 12.8% of deaths worldwide.
It is characterized in particular by an abnormally strong pressure of the blood on the walls of the arteries. In people with hypertension, blood pressure remains elevated at all times, whether at rest or in the absence of stress. In case of hypertension, the doctor may advise the patient to adapt his lifestyle or consider drug treatment when necessary. If its frequency increases with age, it affects nowadays increasingly young populations.
Despite the rise in Inami numbers, the shortage of doctors worries: “When we look ahead to 20 years, the situation remains catastrophic”
The problem is that in most people, high blood pressure doesn’t cause any symptoms. But over time, if left untreated, it can cause health problems, such as heart disease and stroke. It is for this reason that she is nicknamed “the silent killer”.
As every year, the month of May is marked by the launch of a major hypertension screening campaign in 11 hospitals in Belgium (this is the case, for example, of Erasmus on May 17, of the CHU of Liège on May 19 May and from the Mons University Hospital on May 16). A campaign has been launched at the initiative of the Belgian Committee for the Fight against Hypertension (CBH) which has a double objective: to obtain Belgian figures in order to better understand the extent of this public health problem and to detect patients who would not be not yet diagnosed, to then better guide and advise them to manage the disease and thus avoid serious complications, sometimes fatal.
“It is a major risk factor in the occurrence of cardiovascular events such as myocardial infarction, cerebrovascular accidents and renal failure, underlines Dr. Joris Vanparys from CHUBrugmann. Cardiovascular complications remain the most frequent cause of mortality, responsible for 25% of deaths in Belgium. And yet, high blood pressure is considered the cardiovascular risk factor that is the easiest to modify”. According to the World Health Organization, 30% of men and 50% of women between the ages of 65 and 75 suffer from high blood pressure.
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