Cuba is takind a series of actions to strengthen the program to control arterial hypertension (HTA) at the primary healthcare level, a process led by the Ministry of Public Health, according to Prensa Latina.

These actions are part of an innovative organizational strategy based on the technical packages of the Hearts Initiative in the Americas, Dr. Yamilé Valdés, a specialist in Internal Medicine and vice president of the National Technical Advisory Commission on Arterial Hypertension, of the aforementioned organization, told Granma newspaper.

“It is a regional program that involves 32 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, whose purpose is to reduce premature mortality caused by cardiovascular diseases, one of the main consequences of HTA. Cuba was among the four founding nations of the Initiative in 2016,” she said.

Currently, the program involves 451 polyclinics in all 15 provinces and the Isla de la Juventud (Isle of Youth) special municipality.

This means that of approximately three million hypertensive patients in Cuba, little more than two million are registered in the hypertension control program, the specialist explained.

Among the main innovations for the adaptation of the technical package of the Hearts Initiative to the hypertension control program in Cuba is the use of educational materials on habits, lifestyles, and the correct way to take blood pressure, in addition to the use of the Vía Clínica product for the care of hypertension at the primary healthcare level and the introduction of instruments to calculate cardiovascular risk. “Accumulated experience alerts us that many people are unaware of their hypertensive condition or could be uncontrolled from this condition without knowing it. Hence the importance of going to your basic primary healthcare team to be evaluated at least three times a year,” Valdés stressed.