Very more vigilant

There is a lot to be learned from the current COVID-19 pandemic.
So says President of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Barbados
(HSFB), Dr. Kenneth Connell, in his address for World Hypertension Day
2020. With the international day celebrated this past Sunday, Dr.
Connell called on the public health system and members of the public
to be more vigilant as they treat to both conditions in a statement
released titled “The Asymptomatic Carrier Meets the Asymptomatic
Killer”.
Noting that World Hypertension Day 2020 has fallen within the greatest
health threat to human wellness in recent decades, Connell stated that
the ‘silent killer’ kills directly and indirectly and says that it is
not surprising that the disease predisposes to worse outcomes when
coupled with COVID-19.
“Most people, when faced with an infection, will try to mount a
credible defence – the immune response. The infection and the response
may impact almost every organ in the body – this is referred to as
sepsis. A heart damaged from long-term ‘exposure’ to high blood
pressure is less efficient and may therefore struggle to achieve the
appropriate cardiac output required to sustain life. People living
with high blood pressure therefore start off at a disadvantage, but
may still survive the sepsis of COVID-19, although less likely to do
so successfully.”
Stating the measures put in place by the public health response was
the best offence any sovereign nation could have in its fight against
the viral infection, Dr. Connell lauded Barbados for their stance in
keeping its citizens safe.
“The COVID-19 response has brought an entire country to a standstill,
and even with some strong voices in economic support of a premature
reopening of lockdown, this has fallen on the very reluctant ears (and
eyes) of our society at large. Public health has taken precedence. The
lockdown policy was created to ensure the healthiest environment to
prevent viral spread. It makes sense.”
Going on to say that high blood pressure is not as dramatic a problem
in Barbados as COVID-19, despite one-third of the island’s population
stricken with the disease, Dr. Connell explained that the burden was
most definitely felt by society.
“How have we secured the healthiest environment to reduce this spread?
The high blood pressure environment has been created with socially
not-so-distant access to fast unhealthy food, reduced physical
activity, and the emergence of a salty nation. The inability to
achieve ‘safe’ school environments now fosters the creation of the
next generation for population susceptibility, with high rates of
childhood obesity and earlier onset of high blood pressure,” he said.
With up to six feet suggested as a safe distance between persons under
the scourge of the pandemic, Connell played on the safety measure as
he highlighted a six-step plan, which could help to ease the
prevalence of hypertension in Barbados. The plan includes access to
healthy foods, increased physical activity, smoking cessation,
reduction in excessive consumption of alcohol, reducing added sodium
to food and the elimination of trans-fat from diets.
“These risk factors for high blood pressure and other non-communicable
diseases now need to be encouraged, easily facilitated and policed by
our Government. The social determinants of health are the same drivers
influencing risk for both the constant hypertension epidemic in our
region and the novel pandemic of COVID-19,” he went on to say.
With COVID-19 constantly teaching nations the world over new responses
as the situation remains fluid, Dr. Connell highlighted some of the
lessons learned locally from the legacies left by the viral infection
in our own fight against and in dealing with hypertension. These are:
having a strong and decisive leadership in the face of a crisis,
recognition of the threat, acceptance of the science, the deployment
and management of public health interventions, the art of balancing
human health with the economy, and the increased testing to pick up
what he termed asymptomatic “carriers”.