What if you were suffering from a health condition that’s responsible for more than 10 million deaths a year around the world—though it’s preventable and treatable—and you were completely unaware and had no symptoms? Then you’d be suffering from undiagnosed high blood pressure, also known as hypertension. Labeled “the silent killer” for its lack of warning signs, high blood pressure significantly increases the risk of heart disease, stroke and kidney disease if undiagnosed and untreated.
And it’s a serious global problem: 82% of those with hypertension—an estimated one billion people—live in low- and middle-income countries. In 2022, the World Bank counted 137 countries belonging to that classification.
What's the Cost to Treat High-Blood Pressure?
The CDC Foundation received funds from Bloomberg Philanthropies to strengthen cardiovascular health around the world as a partner in the Global Hearts Hypertension Control Initiative. The objective of Global Hearts is to ensure that primary care clinics in low- and middle-income countries offer cardiovascular disease prevention, including diagnosing and controlling high blood pressure. The Foundation engaged experts in different countries to find out how much a hypertension management program would actually cost to implement.
With support from public health partners including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, Resolve to Save Lives, Pan American Health Organization and RTI International, these experts collected data from primary healthcare facilities to determine what kind of financial and/or other resources it would take to scale up this heart-friendly program in their countries. They’re sharing that data with their own governments to put some of these ideas into action.
The Global Hearts Hypertension Control Initiative helps clinics in countries like Ethiopia treat high blood pressure.
A poster at a clinic in the Philippines provides information on how to perform a blood pressure check.
A woman in Ethiopia has her blood pressure checked and treated if necessary.
$5 a Year?
Teams in Bangladesh, Mexico and Ethiopia found that the recommended hypertension treatment would run from $5 - $18 a year per patient. The team in Thailand found ways to increase efficiency by streamlining how diagnostic tests are performed, and a group from the University of the Philippines discovered that costs could be significantly lowered if the national government, rather than local entities, purchased medication directly.
“Low- and middle-income governments are faced with competing priorities and constrained budgets,” said Dr. Renu Garg from partner organization Resolve to Save Lives. “These findings give government decision-makers the evidence they need to support investment in low-cost interventions that allow their people to live longer and healthier lives.”
Read more about this impactful initiative at Resolve to Save Lives.
