The poor treatment rate is largely due to low awareness about the condition, the analysis by the World Health Organization shows.
The analysis reflects the situation across Africa, including Kenya, where one in every four adults has hypertension, according to the Ministry of Health.
Uncontrolled high blood pressure can lead to disability, heart disease, heart attack, and stroke.
“Tackling this serious health threat requires stronger investment to increase access to health services to detect and manage the condition. It’s also vital to further raise awareness about hypertension and promote measures to address its modifiable risk factors,” WHO regional director for Africa Dr Matshidiso Moeti said.
“Across the region, we’re supporting countries to anchor initiatives aimed at decentralising diagnosis, treatment and care of noncommunicable diseases, to improve well-being and curb deaths.”
Globally, around 21 per cent of adults aged above 30 have hypertension under control, and 42 per cent are taking medication for the condition, WHO said.
In Kenya, diagnosis, care and control of hypertension are also constrained by limited access to health services, overburdened health systems, health workforce challenges, lack of access to affordable medicines and non-compliance with drug regimens.
Rising obesity rates, unhealthy lifestyles, along with insufficient patient education, compound the threat, the Ministry of Health said.
Kenya is one of the 27 countries WHO has supported, through an approach known as WHO-PEN, to decentralise the management of non-communicable diseases, including hypertension, at the primary health care level.
Services include screening and diagnosis, treatment, lifestyle modification, patient education and self-management.
“Although targeted initiatives are delivering success, further efforts are needed to lower the high burden of noncommunicable diseases in Africa,” Dr Moeti said.
“Primary health facilities, which are on the frontline of health care and so ideally positioned to deliver health promotion and prevention services, must be fully supported and strengthened.”
Most people with hypertension do not feel any symptoms. But high blood pressure can cause headaches, blurred vision, chest pain and other symptoms.
Last week, health workers in Mombasa County raised concerns over increased cases of cardiovascular diseases in the region.
Thousands of cases of high blood pressure (hypertension), which is one of the most significant risk factors for cardiovascular disease, are being reported in the region, they said.
Last year, the county health department recorded 11,618 cases of hypertension, out of which, some 7,865 were females and 3,618 were males.
Mombasa County Health Executive Swabah Ahmed said hypertension is gradually gaining ground as one of the killer diseases, not only in Mombasa but in the country at large.
“The prevalence rate of hypertension in Africa is estimated to be 46 per cent for individuals above 25 years of age. In Kenya, it ranges between 12.6 to 36.9 per cent while Mombasa county stands at 24 per cent,” Swabah said.
She said effective management of hypertension entails early screening and initiation to therapy.
In Kenya, about 44 per cent of the population has been screened for hypertension, she said.
She said weight loss, increasing physical activity, lowering salt intake, healthy diet, increasing vegetable consumption and limiting alcohol and smoking are some of the measures to prevent hypertension.
Mombasa is undertaking deliberate interventions to stop increased cases of high blood pressure.
“We have routine hypertension screening outreaches and screening for adults in all our health facilities,” she said.
Mombasa County Public Health Department chief officer Pauline Oginga said the majority of people who have hypertension are not even aware of their ill health.
“Unless one becomes sick with severe headaches, palpitation, or something else, they do not know they actually have hypertension. They will only come to know this while in the hospital and the blood pressure is so high, and most of the time it ends with stroke or heart attack,” she said.
In 2020, researchers released results of the biggest-ever screening progamme for hypertension in Kenya and reported that the abnormal rise in blood pressure begins early by age 30, a population often overlooked by hypertension control programmes.
Researchers said this is a worrying finding because prehypertension (elevated blood pressure) is a sign of changes that could lead to heart disease and kidney problems.
The condition is more common among men than women, and the burden increases with increasing age.
"The overall burden of prehypertension was 54.5 per cent and that of hypertension was 20.8 per cent," Healthy Heart Africa (HHA) study, published in BMC Public Health journal in March, 2020 reads.
The programme was implemented in 17 counties between March 2015 and March 2016, comprising five million participants.
The prevalence of prehypertension was 54.5 per cent and that of hypertension was 20.8 per cent.
The prevalence of prehypertension was higher among men (59 per cent) compared to women (52 per cent).
Experts called on interventions that are centred on lifestyle modifications.
"They would include physical activity, healthy diets rich in fruits and vegetables, low-fat dairy products, reduced saturated fats and reduced dietary salt intake. Currently, there is no evidence for pharmacological therapy for prehypertension except in very high-risk patients," they said.
Prehypertension occurs when blood pressure values are above normal levels but are still below hypertension levels.
Healthy Heart Africa is run by the pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca.
(Edited by Tabnacha O)
