HYPERTENSION: IGNORANCE IS NOT A BLESSING

National Health Survey of Pakistan (NHSP) 1990-94 reported that 17.9% of adults had hyper- tension and only 3% of these were controlled.1 Hy- pertension, also called silent killer, is a well estab- lished risk factor for coronary artery disease. Its in- creasing prevalence is therefore of great concern. In the year 2001 hypertension was the most common primary diagnosis made by the office based physi- cians in USA2 and it has been estimated to cause 4.5% of the current global disease burden,3 affect- ing approximately a billion individuals worldwide.4 Furthermore the worldwide figures for adults with hypertension are predicted to rise by about 60% by the year 2025.