Symposium on Hypertension and Diabetes
Mellitus Awareness
Being one of the active NDP’s in the municipality, he spearheaded this activity and invited the MHO, Dr. Mary Rose Bugtai to do a simple talk regarding hypertension and diabetes and a free consultation particularly among hypertensive and diabetic patients.
The one day symposium is composed of a two-part program – the first one being that of lectures on hypertension and diabetes in the morning and the second being that of free consultation in the afternoon.
Hypertension and Diabetes mellitus are
non-communicable diseases; they are also not curable but are diseases that can
be managed adequately in order to avoid serious complications. With that
opening statement of Mr. Camarillo, he introduced me in order to give a lecture
on hypertension, its nature, causes, risk factors and its prevention… in
Bisaya. Being not a fluent speaker of the native language, I was nervous to
take on this task. But reading the lecture in advance pays a lot.
Alhamdulillah!
Alhamdulillah!
Even before the program started the
group administered a pre-test in order to assess the knowledge the community
people have on hypertension. In general their results reflected that they know
what hypertension is and that there is a need to take medications in order to
lower their blood pressure, but once they do not feel any symptoms at all they
would be inclined to stop taking their medications and stop visiting the health
center.
After the lecture on hypertension, a lecture
on diabetes was given by Ms. Elimar Pingkian. According to Mr. Camarillo,
hypertension and diabetes are somewhat related as having either one of the two
could predispose in having the other one.
Then, the post-test were administered
and their results show that they were able to grasp the content of the lecture. Alhamdulillah!
Most of the attendees were
hypertensive and were already prescribed their maintenance medications, however
due to their preconceived notions they stopped taking their medications once
they do not feel any symptoms. Hence, Mr. Camarillo asked for the commitment of
hypertensive patients in taking their medications by reading and signing a
promise note. Managing hypertension is not an easy task where taking
medications would solve the problem at one go, there must be a continuous
effort not only by the health care provider (such as the barangay health
workers) in reminding patients of the importance of taking their medications
but also of the patient himself.
Next, a hypertensive club was formed that
would lead
hypertensive individuals towards a healthy lifestyle and remind each other
regarding their maintenance medications.
In the
afternoon, Dr. Bugtai did a free consultation, free maintenance medications
were given, newly diagnosed hypertensive patients were enrolled in the RHU’s
database and were also given their maintenance medications and BP monitoring
cards. There was also free taking of Random Blood Sugar levels.
After
which a zumba session was lead by the NDP, barangay kagawad for health and medical students to
promote healthy lifestyle through exercise
Written by: Amina I, Solaiman
