China’s first trial program with regard hypertension intervention is being launched at Shanghai at three communities. The object behind this exercise is to bring down the number of patients who go to hospitals which are more expensive. The program which will cover 350,000 people will start towards early 2006 and go on until mid 2007.
The Pfizer Pharmaceuticals of the US along with the Shanghai Center of Disease Prevention and Control is jointly launching the program. Shanghai alone accounted for 2 million people with a high blood pressure in 2002, mostly due to low awareness levels and an unhealthy lifestyle, in addition to improper medication.The neighborhood hospitals’ professional standards do not come up to the expectations of the people who seek large and expensive hospitals for treatment. Better medical systems are sought to be introduced by the program by transferring chronic patients to neighborhood health centers from city-based hospitals.
In the meantime the State of Indianapolis in the US also recognizes the need to tackle the problem posed by hypertension among its people, as a sick state ends up as a poor state. But very little is being done in reality at the ground level, even though a crusade has been launched against obesity. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has revealed that poverty is one among the reasons for obesity.
