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REFLECTIONS
Hypertension
Hypertension Global Newsletter #6 2024

EPIDEMIOLOGY Hypertension

Global report on hypertension: The race against a silent killer.
World Health Organization. 2023.

This report advances global work to address non-communicable diseases. It focuses on the priority non-communicable diseases
targeted by world leaders, particularly the public health challenge of hypertension, to generate momentum for national, regional, and
global action.

High blood pressure is one of the world’s leading causes of death and disability. Over the past three decades, the number of adults
aged 30–79 years living with hypertension has doubled to an estimated 1.3 billion worldwide. Hypertension affects one in three
adults, presents with no symptoms, and is responsible for one in every five deaths; therefore, it is known as the ‘silent killer’. Almost
half of people with hypertension are unaware of their condition. Only about one in five people with hypertension have controlled
their hypertension. The world is not on track to meet the voluntary global target of a 25% reduction in the prevalence of raised blood
pressure (uncontrolled hypertension) by 2025.

The Global Report on Hypertension compiled by the World Health Organization (WHO) reviews the global burden of hypertension,
looks at the risk factors for hypertension, and highlights the benefits of hypertension interventions, including the health benefits
and costs of prevention and control programmes. In addition, the WHO provides guidance on the diagnosis and management of
hypertension, including guidance on the implementation of the ‘HEARTS: Technical package for cardiovascular disease management
in primary health care’, which is endorsed by 11 partner organisations worldwide.

In 2021, the WHO launched its ‘Guideline for the pharmacological treatment of hypertension in adults’, which provides
recommendations on the threshold for the initiation of pharmacological treatment for hypertension, and recommendations for the
basis on which to decide whether to initiate treatment with monotherapy, dual therapy, or single-pill combinations.

TABLE OF CONTENTS