High Prevalence of Undetected Hypertension Found in Bangladesh

The salinity of the water in coastal Bangladesh contributes to high blood pressure. Credit: Rafiqul Islam/IPSBy Rafiqul IslamDHAKA, Nov 7 2023 (IPS) Since her childhood, Parveen Begum, 52, has been adding extra salt while eating her meals. However, she did not know that this contributed to high blood pressure. Recently, she suffered severe headaches, forcing her to go to a physician, and when the doctor checked her health, he she had hypertension. “I could not take my daily meals without taking additional salt, which helped develop the chronic disease in my health. Now I have to take medicines for blood pressure regularly, putting an extra financial burden on my family,” said Parveen, a resident of Musapur at Raipura in Narsingdi district. Rabeya Begum, 50, is a resident of the saline-prone Ashabaria village of Rangabali in the Patuakhali coastal district. Like many others, she and her family members often drink saline water since freshwater sources are affected every year due to coastal flooding, cyclones, and storm surges. Salinity instruction has reached the aquifer in her locality. Local people face scarcity of drinking water during the dry season as salinity reaches an acute level that time, so they are compelled to drink saline water, Rabeya said. “I felt symptoms of high blood pressure like headache and chest pain. So, I checked it and found blood pressure. But there are not enough facilities for screening blood pressure in our remote village,” she said. Like ...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Asia-Pacific Health Humanitarian Emergencies Sustainable Development Goals TerraViva United Nations Women's Health Bangladesh IPS UN Bureau IPS UN Bureau Report Source Type: news