In Photos: World Hypertension Day

The initiative is life-saving. It uses a down to earth approach and raises awareness through regular screening, encouraging people to check their blood pressure at least once a year, offering diagnosis, treatment, management and follow-up. Communities for Healthy Hearts brings detection closer to people, using a “guerrilla warfare” approach to make free screening available in non-traditional but convenient locations, including salons, pharmacies, dental offices, neighborhood security posts and in places people congregate, such as coffee shops.
Photograph: Alex Kumar

The Communities for Healthy Hearts programme has established more than 300 free access points to hypertension screening. Screening also takes place in dental surgeries. Here Tuyen, a semi-retired dentist, reassures her neighbour Van, who saw the sign for the free blood pressure checkpoint and decided to see what it was all about. She’s unsure and anxious about the process, but Tuyen puts her at ease by explaining it’s a painless and potentially lifesaving test.
Photograph: Alex Kumar

Ngoc (center, in pink) is working with a local organisation that adapted its expertise as community-based HIV testers to hypertension. They aim to identify new patients by making blood pressure checks available in unconventional yet convenient locations where people gather, such as nail salons.
Photograph: Alex Kumar