The University of Cape Coast (UCC) Chapter of the Ghana Association of University Administrators (GAUA) has organised a health talk on Hypertension.
The event, which formed part of activities marking the Professional Week Celebration of GAUA-UCC, was to raise awareness on prompt hypertension prevention, early detection and treatment.
This is particularly significant in Ghana where one of every three adults has hypertension.
Speaking at the event, the Director of UCC Health Services, Dr. James Kojo Prah, expressed concern about the high prevalence of hypertension in Ghana.
He explained that hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, was a long-term medical condition characterized by persistently elevated blood pressure within the arteries.
“The Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP) will be more than or equal to 130mmHg and Diastolic Blood Pressure (DBP) will be more than or equal to 90mmHg,” he emphasized.
Director of UCC Health Services, Dr. James Kojo Prah
Dr. Prah mentioned risk factors of hypertension as old age, alcohol, excessive dietary intake of Sodium (Table Salt), family history, obesity, sedentary lifestyle and stress. He added that many people with this condition were unaware of having it and only a few of those who were aware are on treatment.
To him, Ghanaians, especially staff of the University, need to be aware that hypertension is a problem and they need to have their blood pressure checked.
Dr. Prah indicated, "...In our statistics at this University, from January to June 2024...we lost eight staff members and four of them were hypertension-related. So, it is a serious thing. We have even lost students to hypertension-related ailments... So, this is not a friendly disease at all."
Touching on signs and symptoms of the disease, he said the condition gives no obvious symptoms but when one starts experiencing symptoms, chances are that there has already been some organ damage hence, the name “Silent Killer”.
The Director indicated that the management of hypertension was mainly done in two ways - lifestyle modification and pharmacological therapy.
He said lifestyle modification involved weight loss, Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet, alcohol reduction or cessation, exercise, stress management, and dietary sodium reduction.
Head, Reprographic and Dispatch Unit of the College of Distance Education-UCC, Mrs. Miriam Danso, at the health talk
He reminded the GAUA-UCC members that uncontrolled hypertension had a higher risk of causing damage to every organ in the body including the heart, brain, feet, lever, and eyes among others.
He said having consistent blood pressure above 140/90 was a cause for concern as that could be diagnosed as hypertension, explaining that the upper reading represents when the heart was pumping blood while the lower measure was for when the heart was relaxing.
According to him, issues of hypertension must be of great concern to all as affects people all over the world and also has a lot of long-term effects on the body.
Dr. Prah was, however, quick to add that hypertension was preventable and treatable.
For his part, the President of GAUA-UCC, Mr. Felix Adu-Poku, urged members to ensure that they were responsible for their health so they could live longer.
He appealed to the media to devote some time to engaging health professionals to educate the public on hypertension, pointing out that “the education we offer today through our media platform may save a life tomorrow.”
Source: Documentation and Information Section-UCC