It is my privilege to issue this message for the maiden issue of the bulletin published by the Sri Lanka Hypertension Society.
Hypertension is the commonest risk factor for the most common causes of death in Sri Lanka; coronary heart disease, stroke, heart and renal failure. It is learned that nearly one-fifth to one-third of adult Sri Lankans have blood pressure levels that are above normal and the prevalence is comparable to those in the developed countries. The problem of hypertension is further compounded by the underuse of effective and generally well tolerated antihypertensive medications. The data available from the recent studies indicate that sub-optimal blood pressure control is a serious public health issue in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka Hypertension Society (SLHS) is a non-profitable organization created with the intentions of raising public awareness; imparting knowledge related to hypertension among medical trainees; clinicians involved in patient care and to act as a platform for the interested academic societies and organizations to work in collaboration to achieve and deliver the highest standard of care in the arena of hypertension in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka Hypertension Society has been established in 2003, however it has gone through an unfortunate dormant period after few years of its inception. It was relaunched in the year 2019 at Peradeniya and has been active and works in collaboration with various international and national academic societies. As a part of our strategy to disseminate knowledge regarding hypertension among health care professionals the society has planned biannual release of a bulletin to combat this “Silent Killer””. I take this opportunity to congratulate the council in particular the joint editors for their untiring effort to make this venture a success.
Prof T. Kumanan
As a past-President of the International Society of Hypertension , I’m delighted to see individual countries developing their own hypertension societies.
Having several on-going collaborations with friends & colleagues in Sri Lanka, it is a particular pleasure for me to wish the Sri Lanka Hypertension Society every success in the fight against raised BP in Sri Lanka .
I hope the launch of your superb website will help to boost these endeavours !
Meanwhile – my very best wishes to all the members of the Sri Lanka Hypertension Society .
