KMC to be part of May Measurement Month

In the year 2017, KMC's Health department had screened around 4,835 people where 25 percent were found suffering from high blood pressure among whom 26 percent are undergoing treatment. "This helps us to diagnose and accordingly make a plan for treating blood pressure. The same process will be followed this year and we hope to screen more people this year," said TK Mukherjee, health adviser of KMC.

It may be mentioned that blood pressure kills an estimated 2.6 lakh of people each year and hypertension that results from blood pressure is a major risk factor for developing coronary artery disease that can lead to life threatening episodes like heart attack and stroke. Nearly 100 countries have signed up for the screening, including India.

The global initiative aims to screen 25 million people over the world during May.

Dr Sandip Bhalla, programme director at Public Health Foundation of India which is responsible for conducting the campaign said the aim behind the initiative is to make the government as well as private healthcare and NGOs to come forward and take steps to keep blood pressure and hypertension under control. Bhalla said the data from each country will be analysed along with the results of millions of others worldwide and would be used to form a blue-print action plan to tackle hypertension globally.