WHO urges action to control hypertension, save millions of lives in Western Pacific

By Jayvee Vallejera

In Palau, a staggering 48 percent of its population aged between 30 and 79 years old have high blood pressure. That is 14 percentage points above the global average of 34 percent.

The prevalence of the disease in the Federated States of Micronesia is lower, but it’s still concerning at 33 percent. That is just one percentage point below the global average.

These numbers, compiled by the World Health Organization in its newly released “Global Report on Hypertension 2025,” paint a troubling prevalence of high blood pressure, or hypertension, in the region.

WHO said the disease currently affects more than one in four adults in the Western Pacific, a region of 38 countries and areas with over 2.2 billion people. But of those diagnosed with the disease, only 22 percent—one in five—have it under control. In some Pacific Island countries, control rates are below 5 percent.

With the world celebrating World Heart Day today, WHO is highlighting the disease as the leading risk factor for premature death and that simple and regular blood pressure checks and largely affordable medicines could save literally millions of lives.

Called a “silent killer,” WHO says people often display no symptoms until it is too late and learn only of the disease when they already have a stroke, a heart attack or kidney failure. Uncontrolled hypertension is also known as a leading risk factor for dementia.

“Most people with hypertension feel fine until they don’t. A stroke that robs someone of speech, a heart attack on the job, or kidney failure seemingly without warning,” states a WHO news release on the release of its report.

Among the 38 countries that fall within WHO’s Western Pacific Region, it is the small country of Tuvalu that has the most worrying numbers. According to WHO’s report, more than half (53 percent) of the island nation’s population have hypertension.

Tuvalu’s small population (9,650) does affect its percentage numbers, but this is just a tad lower than the prevalence rate of the disease in larger countries like Tajikistan (44 percent) and Iraq (44 percent).

Paraguay, which has nearly seven million people, has the dubious distinction of leading, with a hypertension prevalence rate of 55 percent. According to WHO, of the 1.8 million adults aged 30–79 years with hypertension in Paraguay, approximately 1.6 million do not have the condition controlled.

Worldwide, 1.4 billion people lived with hypertension in 2024, WHO said, yet fewer than 1 in 5 (320 million) had the condition adequately controlled.

“Every hour, more than 1 000 lives are cut short by strokes and heart attacks linked to high blood pressure. Lives that could have been saved,” said Dr. Saia Ma’u Piukala, WHO regional director for the Western Pacific.

“The tools to prevent these deaths already exist. With political commitment, investment, and by embedding hypertension control into primary health care, countries in our region can change the course of this ‘silent killer’ and move closer to universal health coverage," Piukala added.

WHO says unchecked hypertension not only cuts lives short and strains health systems, but it also has an enormous economic toll: cardiovascular diseases, including hypertension, are projected to have cost low- and middle-income countries $ 3.7 trillion between 2011 and 2025.

WHO says hypertension is among the easiest conditions to prevent and control with the right tools, policies and financing.

That includes making blood pressure checks routine for every adult, guaranteeing access to medicines, training frontline health workers and harnessing digital health to support follow-up and adherence to treatment.

Fiji and other Pacific island countries are already doing this, WHO said, by expanding nurse-led and community-based care and bringing services closer to people.

WHO said that Korea has already achieved 59 percent control, proving that progress is possible with sustained investment and strong primary health care.

The Western Pacific Region has set an ambitious goal: by 2029, 100 million more people should have their blood pressure under control, which means more than doubling control rates from 22 percent today to 50 percent.

Member states will consider their next steps at the 76th session of the WHO Western Pacific Regional Committee in Fiji on Oct. 20 to 24.

In his foreword to the hypertension report, WHO director-general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said many countries are already implementing policies to prevent and control hypertension, but the world is still lagging behind the target to reduce premature mortality from noncommunicable diseases by one-third by 2030.

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