One in three adults has hypertension, doctors warn of silent epidemic

A survey by Narmada Kidney Foundation, a non profit, in Mumbai, found that in urban areas, 38.6 percent of people were hypertensive and 18.6 percent diabetic, while in rural areas, 39.8 percent were hypertensive and 14.7 percent diabetic. Many of these cases were detected for the first time during screening camps, highlighting the problem of delayed diagnosis.

To address this issue, a specialised Renal Denervation Therapy Centre was launched at Gleneagles Hospital on Tuesday in partnership with Medtronic India. Dr Bharat Shah, Director of Institute of Renal Science at the hospital, who is also part of the survey, said, “This is an ongoing survey, that we have been conducting for the last 10 years and so far we have surveyed over 10,000 people from different age groups, we are in the process of documenting and compiling the data but the findings are alarming.”

Doctors explained that the therapy centre will focus on resistant hypertension, cases where blood pressure remains uncontrolled despite multiple medicines, and stressed that accurate diagnosis itself requires three blood pressure readings taken at one minute intervals, with the average used to confirm hypertension.