Africa, global capital of hypertension —Adewole, former health minister

NIGERIA’S immediate past Health Minister, Professor Issac Adewole, has said that Africa is the global capital of hypertension with almost one out of every two adults older than 25 years of age having high blood pressure.

Professor Adewole spoke at the 50th annual symposium and journal launch of Dokita Editorial Board, Alexander Brown Hall, University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, with the theme “Non-communicable Diseases (NCDs) in the Nigerian Society: Shedding light on the Silhouettes.”

Oshiomhole suspension: Confusion as party spokesman, evade newsmen

Adewole, who spoke through Professor Mayowa Owolabi, the Dean of the Faculty of Clinical Sciences, University of Ibadan, stated that high blood pressure like other noncommunicable diseases is now everybody’s business since everybody either has it or is at risk of having it.

He said that obesity was also becoming a problem and that the high incidence of hypertension was linked to factors such as high cholesterol levels, low level of physical activity, alcohol use, smoking and poor dietary habits like a high consumption of meat and fried foods.

Professor Adewole noted that chances of having noncommunicable diseases as arthritis and spondylosis increase with age and almost all noncommunicable diseases are about 90 per cent preventable.

According to him: “So, if we adopt healthy lifestyle, healthy diet, exercise and we check our numbers as they call it- your blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol and weight, and if any of these is high, take the medications to control them, then more than 80 to 90 per cent of these conditions can be prevented.”

Director, Centre for the Genomics of Non-Communicable Diseases and Personalised Healthcare, University of Lagos, Professor Oluyemi Akinloye, in his keynote lecture, said there was the need for a paradigm shift in tbe treatment of NCDs in Nigeria. According to him, “treatment of NCDs should be precise and personalised; that is treating each patient as an individual and not as a group of people.”

Professor Akinloye said the government must put a lot of money into genomics to be able to classify genetic makeup of Nigerians so that appropriate interventions, precise and personalised interventions on NCDs could be available to Nigerians.

President of the Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) Alliance Nigeria, Dr Sonny Kuku stated that Nigeria is better than it was five years ago in its fight against NCDs.

According to him, “prevention is the keystone of it as about 90 per cent of it is preventable and the government has brought into the idea that all the PHCs will be the first point of trying to prevent NCDs. In that case, we will pick those things earlier and we can treat them, and then education about lifestyle, that is also important.”

Nigerian Tribune