Hypertension hides in plain sight

Thailand's economy has surged. Its health care system is admired. Yet a silent killer is quietly stealing lives, straining hospitals, and sapping the nation's future. That killer is hypertension — and it's hiding in plain sight.

- JOS VANDELAER RENU GARG

Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is often called the "silent killer" for good reason. It creeps up with no symptoms, quietly damaging the heart, brain, kidneys, and blood vessels. It doesn’t just hurt individuals and families it burdens our health system with avoidable costs and robs the economy of productivity through absenteeism and premature death.

The burden of hypertension in Thailand is already enormous and growing. One in four Thai adults has high blood pressure. Three out of four people with high blood pressure do not have it under control, putting them at risk of heart disease, stroke, kidney disease and dementia.

Yet hypertension can be avoided and controlled, as other countries have shown. Twenty-five years ago, Thailand and South Korea were at the same starting point. Both countries had a blood pressure control rate of just 8%. Today, South Korea boasts the world's highest rate at 62%, while Thailand lags far behind at 23%. South Korea has managed to reduce its death rate from stroke by an astonishing 83%. In contrast, stroke remains the leading cause of death in Thailand, and a staggering 58% of strokes are attributed to uncontrolled blood pressure. Canada, Costa Rica, and other countries have also delivered comprehensive national hypertension programmes and shown notable improvements with control rates over 50%.