Non-communicable diseases kill 570,263 people in Bangladesh every year, about 71 per cent of all deaths, and 19 per cent of those deaths are premature. The research and advocacy group PROGGA (Knowledge for Progress) presented the figures, citing a statistical source, at a journalists' workshop at the BMA building in Dhaka on Sunday.
The workshop, on sustainable financing for hypertension control in Bangladesh, was held with the support of the Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI) and attended by 28 journalists. Citing a 2019 World Bank report, PROGGA said only 4.2 per cent of the health budget is spent on controlling non-communicable diseases, and per-capita spending is just $0.08 a year against the $1.50 recommended by the World Health Organization.
According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics' Health and Morbidity Status Survey 2025, hypertension tops the list of the country's ten most common diseases. Heart disease killed about 283,800 people in 2024, and high blood pressure was responsible for 52 per cent of those deaths.
Speakers said hypertension is no longer a disease of the elderly. According to the Bangladesh NCD STEPS Survey 2018, about 12 per cent of people aged 18 to 39 have high blood pressure. Experts said that if a large share of the government's increased health spending went to hypertension control, the risk of heart disease and other non-communicable diseases, and deaths from them, could be reduced.
Md Riad Arefin, deputy general manager (sales and marketing) of Essential Drugs Company, said the rise in health allocations for 2026-27 was an important step, and spending it on hypertension control as a priority would allow an uninterrupted supply of free medicine for poor people.
Economic Reporters Forum president Doulot Akter Mala spoke of the media's role in pressing for higher allocations. GHAI's Bangladesh country lead Muhammad Ruhul Quddus said more people suffer from hypertension than any other disease, so sustainable financing is urgent. PROGGA executive director ABM Zubair chaired the workshop and programme officer Samiha Binte Kamal gave the presentation.
Photo: ML5 / Wikimedia Commons (public domain); a blood pressure monitor, for illustration
Source: Samakal
Comments
(0)