World Hypertension Day - 17th May, 2007

We are glad to inform you that World Hypertension Day was celebrated on 17th May with the slogan "Healthy Diet, Healthy Blood Pressure" and the following activities were conducted by the Nepal Hypertension Society on that occasion:

1) Talk Program: A talk program on hypertension, Dr. M. R. Pandey, President of Nepal Hypertension Society; Dr. G. P Acharya, Vice President of the Society and Dr. J.P. Agrawal, EC Member of the Society presented their papers. The Chief Guest was Vice-chairman of Parliament Hon'ble Chitra Lekha Yadav. It was very well attended and was well covered by the media - TV, Radio, Press, Magazines etc.

2) Interaction Program: The panel members consisted of Dr. G. P. Acharya, Dr. J. P. Agrawal, Dr. G. B. Baniya, Dr. R. Koju and Dr. K.J. Rana under my moderation. There were very interesting questions and answers. This has been of great help to increase the general awareness. The panel emphasized the importance of hypertension and its serious medical complications and provided information to meet our major goal of healthy diet and healthy blood pressure.

3) We translated the leaflets supplied by WHL in Nepali language and it has been distributed to different places in the country. We have also prepared a calendar illustrating the importance of hypertension.

4) This programs were also conducted by our expert members, Dr. R. Koju in Dhulikhel and Dr. S. Adhikari in Biratnagar, which were another districts of Nepal.  I presented the talk program in Dhulikhel as a Chief Guest.

5) I gave a live interview on hypertension through the national radio which covered all over the country and also several FMs/Magazines.

Dr. M. R. Pandey
President, Nepal Hypertension Society
P.O. Box 2587, Kathmandu, Nepal
E-mail: pandeymr@gmail.com

This time the program was very well covered by the media and not only as news items but also as editorials. The press as well as radio, Television and the message reached all over the country. General people are very happy to learn that hypertension is an important but relatively neglected rapidly increasing problem of the country. Almost one in five adult populations suffering from it. They have been conscious of the dangers of the disease and the importance of prevention and treatment to goal by lifestyle measures and supplementary by medicines whenever necessary. We focused on the diet specially to reduce the salt consumption.