Blood-pressure-related disease is a global health priority

摘要

In global health politics, cardiovascular -disease is the elephant in the room - a massive problem that few want to acknowledge and even fewer want to tackle. In today's Lancet, Lawes et al. , on behalf of the International Society of Hypertension, estimate that blood-pressure-related diseases cause about half this burden, killing around 8 million people each year. Low-income and middle-income countries shoulder about 80% of the cardiovascular disease burden, half of which is in people of working age.