High blood pressure accounts for 52pc heart disease fatality

The risk of illness and premature death caused by high blood pressure is rising alarmingly in Bangladesh. Around 283,800 people died from heart disease in the country in 2024, with high blood pressure reportedly contributing to 52 per cent of these deaths.

This disclosure was made at a  journalists’ workshop titled “Sustainable Financing for Hypertension Control in Bangladesh: Progress, Barriers and the Way Forward” held at the BIP Conference Room in the capital on Wednesday. Research and advocacy organisation PROGGA (Knowledge for Progress) organised the workshop with support from the Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI).

Despite an increase in the health budget, there is still a shortage of adequate and sustained funding to control high blood pressure, speakers at the workshop said, adding, allocating a significant portion of the increased health budget to controlling high blood pressure and other non-communicable diseases can help reduce the risk of premature deaths.