Kano govt offers free medical insurance to hypertension patients

From Mustapha Adamu, Kano

Kano state Ministry of Health has offered free enrollment of vulnerable hypertension patients at Kano State Contributory Healthcare Management Agency, KSCHMA.
The state’s Commissioner of Health, Dr. Abubakar Labaran Yusuf disclosed this at a press conference marking the 2024 World Hypertension Day, held at EOC, Abdullahi Wase Hospital on Friday.
He said the enrollment exercise, which would last for a week, would enable vulnerable hypertensive persons get free or subsidized screening and medication.
According to Yusuf, the enrollment is part of the state government’s resolve to reduce the ailment to the nearest minimum as Kano has the the highest number of hypertension patients in the country with 28.5 percent of its population are hypertensive.
“An estimated 1.28 billion adults aged 30 – 79 years worldwide have hypertension. It was estimated that the global burden of hypertension will increase to more than 31% of the world’s adult population by 2025.
“ The prevalence of hypertension in Nigeria is 27.6 and it has found that in Kano the most prevalent Cardiovascular risk factor was hypertension which is 28.5% out of which nearly two-thirds (60.7%) of these hypertensives were newly discovered.
“Hypertension is a major cause of a range of health problems such as strokes, heart attacks and kidney disease among others.
“Many people who suffer from hypertension are not aware that they have it as there can be no symptoms, often people only find out after suffering a heart attack or stroke.
However, according to the Commissioner, hypertension could be managed and its consequences be avoided or delayed with “physical activity, healthy diet, maintaining a normal body weight, avoiding tobacco use, regular screening, use of medication and treatment of complications.”
He said since the inception of the current administration, the state Government in collaboration with partners and other stakeholders have made remarkable achievements.
The achievements include fee screening of patient and provision of subsidized medications for hypertensives patients across the state hospitals.