By Tione Andsen

Lilongwe, May 18, Mana: Country Leader for May Measurement Month (MMM) in Malawi, Henry Ndhlovu has encouraged Malawians to be taking part in regular Blood Pressure (BP) checks as one way of preventing complications like Stroke and unwanted deaths due to raised BP.

He was speaking at Nyasa Ground in Area 49 in Lilongwe on Friday where they held some activities as part of this year’s world Hypertension Day which falls on May 17 each year.

Ndhlovu, who is also Managing Director for Moyowathu HealthCare Services emphasized that the MMM activities compliment government’s efforts of ensuring more people access awareness and screening services for BP.

One of the block leaders of Area 49, Fungai Piyo thanked Moyowathu Health Care Services for the BP checks and encouraged people of the area to participate so that they know their BP status.  

MMM is a global blood pressure screening awareness campaign, launched in 2017 by the International Society of Hypertension (ISH) and its aim is to highlight the importance of measuring BP and to raise awareness of the dangers posed by elevated BP and Hypertension.

Malawi started participating in MMM upon inception in 2017 due to membership with the ISH by Ndhlovu.

According to results of MMM22 it is estimated that in Malawi 27.3 percent have raised BP, putting them at risk of some serious long-term complications if left untreated and further to this it was identified that 72.6 percent of people with Hypertension were not aware that they had the condition.