India wins UN awards for Large-scale Initiative against Hypertension under NHM

Source: The post is based on the article “India wins UN awards for Large-scale Initiative against Hypertension under NHM” published in PIB on 22nd September 2022

What is the News?

India has won the ‘2022 UN Interagency Task Force, and WHO Special Programme on Primary Health Care Award’ for its “India Hypertension Control Initiative (IHCI)”.

Note: This achievement comes at a time when the World Health Organization(WHO) estimates that one in every four adults in India suffers from hypertension and only 12% of these adults have hypertension under control.

What is India Hypertension Control Initiative (IHCI)?

Launched in: 2017

Launched by: It is a collaborative initiative of the Ministry of Health, Indian Council of Medical Research(ICMR), state governments and World Health Organization.

Aim: To achieve the government’s goal of a 25% relative reduction in raised blood pressure by 2025.

Nodal Mission: IHCI is a large-scale hypertension intervention under National Health Mission. 

The strategies adopted under the initiative include 1) simple drug-dose-specific standard treatment protocol, 2) ensuring adequate quantity of protocol medications, 3) decentralization of care with follow-up and refills of medicines at Health Wellness Centers and 4) task sharing involving all health staff and a powerful real-time information system which can track every patient for follow-up and blood pressure control. 

Achievements: Nearly half of those who were treated under this initiative had blood pressure under control.