Dr. Mohamed Mohsen Ibrahim, head of the Egyptian Society of Hypertension, said official statistics indicate that 26 percent of Egyptian adults suffer hypertension, of whom 66 percent are unaware of it.
He also said that doctors control the blood pressure of only 8 percent of those patients.
At a signing of an agreement with the Health Ministry under the auspices of a global pharmaceutical company on Saturday, Ibrahim said hypertension is responsible for more than 50 percent of the deaths from cardiovascular diseases. “The agreement builds specialized clinics for diagnosis and treatment in various governorates,” he said. “We are also making a database of the characteristics of the disease and how to control it.”
He said the agreement supports scientific cooperation with advanced research centers abroad. “Hypertension is the most chronic non-contagious disease in Egypt,” he said.
He said the disease may cause serious complications if ignored, such as enlargement of the heart muscle, malfunction of the coronary arteries, heart and brain attacks, brain bleeding, kidney failure or an aortic aneurysm.
Dr. Wafa al-Amrousy, head of the heart and blood vessels department at Cairo University, said age and weight increase the possibility of hypertension.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
