With a rise in heart related disorders and heart attacks, the Health department, for the first time, has issued hypertension protocol that will be useful in treatment of patients in rural areas. In primary health centres (PHCs) and community health centres (CHCs), the protocol will be followed for the treatment of patients as many cannot reach other centres in bigger cities.
Under the new protocol, the doctors will measure blood pressure of all adults over 18 years. If they find that the blood pressure systolic is higher than 140 mm Hg or diastolic is higher than 90 mm Hg, the doctors have been asked to start treatment of the patients with medicine.
The hypertension protocol has separately defined the treatment of hypertension among pregnant Women, diabetic patients, patients who had suffered heart attack in last three years, patients who had suffered heart attack or stroke ever, patients with high cardiovascular disease risk and chronic kidney disease patients.
The NationalFamily Health Survey (NFHS-5) released recently shows that 17.9% of men aged 15 and above have elevated blood pressure or are taking medicine to control blood pressure compared to 15.4% women who have the same problem.
The Percentage of hypertension is more in urban areas, but the difference is quite less. While it is 16.9% for women in urban areas compared to 14.9% in rural areas, for men it is 19.2% in urban and 17.4% in rural areas.