17.5-28% of adults in Ghana are hypertensive-Health Ministry
The Ministry of Health has revealed that about 17.5 to 28 percent of the Ghanaian adult population is hypertensive. Director of Policy and Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation at the ministry, Dr. Odame Ankrah said over 70 percent of the patient with hypertension are not aware and not on treatment. According to him “only 5 to 13 percent of those on treatment are controlled and nearly half of the hypertensives have target organ damage i.e. complications”. Delivering a speech on behalf of the Deputy Health Minister, Hon Kingsley Aboagye Gyedu at the launch of the Ghana Heart Initiative Pilot Project, Dr Odame Ankrah said that “non-communicable diseases have a high economic burden and have the potential of tipping households into poverty and maintaining them in it”. He stressed that in a study of twenty three low-middle income countries (LMICS), it was estimated that US$84 billion of economic production have been lost from heart diseases, stro...