Health authorities in the Ashanti Region have sounded a strong warning over the growing prevalence of hypertension, describing the condition as a “silent time bomb” threatening public health across the region.

Though the region saw hypertension slightly decline from 140,260 cases in 2024 to 138,710 cases in 2025, health authorities are worried over the dangers posed by the condition.

Ashanti Regional Health Director, Dr. Fred Adomako-Boateng revealed that hypertension is ranked as the 10th leading cause of outpatient department attendance, accounting for approximately 2.9 per cent of all hospital visits in the region.

He was speaking at the launch of World Hypertension Day in Kumasi. This year’s observation is under the theme "Measure, Detect, Control".

Hypertension was responsible for 3.3 percent of all hospital admissions in the Ashanti Region in 2025, as the region recorded 10.4 per cent hypertension-related deaths. Hypertension-related complications such as cardiac arrest, stroke or cerebrovascular accidents; cerebral ischaemia; and congestive heart failure are also on the rise.

The region, until 2025, was seeing a progressive record of hypertension cases between 2022 and 2024, as cases increased from 126,110 to 140,260 cases, over the period.

“New cases that were recorded in the region: in 2021, we had 121,829; in 2022, we had 126,110; in 2023, we had 136,380; in 2024, we had 140,260; and in 2025, we had 138,710. But then I will throw further light on this. If you look at our OPD attendance and you are looking at the first 10 OPD attendances, hypertension in 2025 was the tenth one, and of the people visiting our hospital, approximately 2.8%, 2.85 or 2.9% were due to hypertension. Now, if you also look at our admission rate at Ashanti Region, hypertension contributed about 3.3% of all people that we admitted in 2025," Dr. Adomako-Boateng said.

Regional health director, Dr. Fred Adomako-Boateng told a forum to commemorate World Hypertension Month there has been a steady increase in newly recorded hypertension cases across the region.

The situation, he says, calls for urgent public attention.

“If you look at the causes of death in the Ashanti Region and you see the importance of what we are doing here, hypertension contributed 1.3%. 2025, 43 people died from hypertension. But then, if you calculate all the other factors or other complications that led to their demise or death, you see hypertension, and I'm going to just mention them. And these are hypertension-related: cardiac arrest, cerebral ischaemia, stroke, cerebrovascular accident, congestive heart failure, and heart failure unspecified; essential hypertension contributed about 10.4% of all the deaths that happened in the Ashanti Region.”

The health directorate, in collaboration with other stakeholders, has instituted measures to help tackle the menace.

“You cannot control what you do not measure, and you cannot treat what you do not detect. And a patient who knows most survives. This is why we are proud to announce our commitment to the Measure 1 Million campaign, a nationwide initiative aimed at screening 1 million individuals for hypertension through community-based outreach activities across the country,” Dr. Adomako-Boateng revealed.

Part of this is a screening programme targeting at least one million Ghanaian adults aged 18 and above for hypertension by December 31, 2026.

The campaign, according to him, is aligned with one, the Ghana National Non-Communicable Disease Policy and Strategy; the free primary healthcare initiative; the network of practice or population-based or primary healthcare network approach for decentralised service delivery; and then the WHO Global Hearts Initiative.