|
|
Article: Blood Pressure Rising Around the Globe
- Article from:
- AP Online
- Article date:
- May 14, 2007
CopyrightCopyright 2007 Associated Press/AP Online. This material is published under license from the publisher through YellowBrix, Alexandria, Virginia. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to YellowBrix. (Hide copyright information)
|
WASHINGTON - The numbers are a shock: Almost 1 billion people worldwide have high blood pressure, and over half a billion more will harbor this silent killer by 2025.
It's not just a problem for the ever-fattening Western world. Even in parts of Africa, high blood pressure is becoming common.
That translates into millions of deaths from heart disease alone. Yet hypertension doesn't command the attention of, say, bird flu, which so far has killed fewer than 200 people.
"Hypertension has gone a bit out of fashion," says Dr. Jan Ostergren of Sweden's Karolinska University Hospital, who co-authored a first-of-its-kind analysis of the global impact of high blood pressure.
The idea: to rev ...