Door-to-Door Hypertension Care in Dakar Brings a Pervasive Public Health Problem to Light

By Margarite Nathe, Principal Editor/Writer, IntraHealth InternationalMay 16, 2019Many health workers in Senegal didn ’t know what hypertension was or how to treat it—until now.Fatima* felt terrible. She was having headaches and dizziness, and she was so tired.This went on for months. When she went to the local health facility in Podor —her tiny hometown in northern Senegal—they found that her blood pressure was high.“Stop eating so much,” the health worker told Fatima. “And don’t eat late in the day.”Fatima followed this erroneous advice. She ate all her usual foods, but less, and she stopped eating anything after four o ’clock in the afternoon. But she still felt awful. And on top of it, her hunger kept her awake at night. Eventually, her family sent her 480km away to Dakar, where they hoped she might get better care.“Monitoring blood pressure has become a routine part of health care in developed nations,” saysJoseph Barboza, a physician in Senegal and director of IntraHealth International ’s work onBetter Hearts Better Cities Dakar, a global initiative led and funded by the Novartis Foundation. “But this has not yet become a routine part of primary care in Senegal.”Most health workers in Dakar have never been trained on hypertension or given resources to treat, manage, or screen for it. This means that most people who seek care for hypertension are, like Fatima, already experiencing symptoms —and in danger of stroke, heart attack, or kidne...
Source: IntraHealth International - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Better Hearts Better Cities - Dakar Noncommunicable Diseases Community Engagement Health Workforce & Systems Primary Health Care Community Health Workers Senegal Source Type: news