{"id":31244,"date":"2016-12-21T01:27:29","date_gmt":"2016-12-21T01:27:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/africa-has-highest-rate-of-high-blood-pressure\/"},"modified":"2016-12-21T01:27:25","modified_gmt":"2016-12-21T01:27:25","slug":"africa-has-highest-rate-of-high-blood-pressure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/africa-has-highest-rate-of-high-blood-pressure\/","title":{"rendered":"Africa has highest rate of high blood pressure, WHO says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>{Africa has the highest rate of high blood pressure in the world, affecting about 46% of adults, a World Health Organization (WHO) study has found.}<\/p>\n<p>It blamed increasing urbanisation and unhealthy lifestyles for the rise in cases.<\/p>\n<p>The global average for the number of people suffering from the condition was about 40%, the WHO said.<\/p>\n<p>High blood pressure was often detected too late and was a silent killer, it added.<\/p>\n<p>If lifestyles do not change, more people in Africa could die from chronic illnesses, including diabetes and cancer, than infectious disease by 2030, the WHO said.<\/p>\n<p>The report&#8217;s author, Abdikamal Alisalad, said the level of unhealthy habits in many African nations had come as a shock.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We were surprised because we thought we would not see this kind of situation currently. We were expecting it maybe 30 or 40 years from now,&#8221; he told AFP news agency.<\/p>\n<p>He attributed the rise in non-communicable diseases to changes in developing societies.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;People are moving from the rural areas, going to urban, metropolitan areas. The middle-income group is growing, life expectancy is also growing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Of the 34 African countries surveyed, Ghana, Nigeria, Seychelles, Cape Verde and Sao Tome and Principe had the highest prevalence rate of high blood pressure.<\/p>\n<p>Treating non-communicable diseases is costly, so it is in the economic interest of every country to support prevention campaigns, says BBC Africa health reporter Anne Soy.<\/p>\n<p>Experts recommend eating at least five servings of fruit and vegetables a day, quitting smoking, drinking in moderation, reducing salt intake and exercising often.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-17185 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/_93042482_bloodpressure.jpg\" alt=\"Experts say high blood pressure is a silent killer\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>{Africa has the highest rate of high blood pressure in the world, affecting about 46% of adults, a World Health Organization (WHO) study has found.} It blamed increasing urbanisation and unhealthy lifestyles for the rise in cases. The global average for the number of people suffering from the condition was about 40%, the WHO said. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[100],"byline":[249],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-31244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","tag-africa","byline-bbc"],"bylines":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"contributors":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31244\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31244"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=31244"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=31244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}