The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday, September 23, launched its Global Hypertension Report 2025 at the 80th United Nations General Assembly, warning that high blood pressure affects about 1.4 billion people worldwide and contributes to roughly 10 million deaths each year.
Hypertension, described as the world’s “silent killer,” remains the leading risk factor for heart attacks, strokes, and kidney failure.
According to WHO, the latest report draws on 1,201 population-based studies involving 104 million adults aged 30–79 to estimate trends in prevalence, diagnosis, treatment, and control.
Hypertension is defined as a systolic blood pressure ≥140 mmHg, a diastolic blood pressure ≥90 mmHg, or current use of antihypertensive medication.
Nevertheless, control remains low. WHO finds that only one in five people with hypertension worldwide have their condition under control.
The organization estimates that raising treatment coverage to 50% could prevent 76 million deaths between 2023 and 2050 and save health systems around US$100 billion annually.
IT IS A LIFE-SAVING HABIT TO REGULARLY CHECK AND LOG YOUR BLOOD PRESSURE.
What’s New in 2025
The 2025 report, launched under the banner “High blood pressure, high stakes: translating commitment into lifesaving action”, outlines a “treatment-first” playbook: measure accurately, diagnose early, treat to protocol, and monitor performance. Moreover, it updates country profiles to guide national plans.
- Lives saved. Based on WHO modeling, achieving 50% control could prevent 76 million deaths by 2050.
- Money saved. The same scenario is projected to save US$100 billion annually in health-care costs by averting strokes, heart attacks, and kidney failure.
The Treatment Gap: Big, Visible—and Solvable
Despite decades of campaigns, most people with hypertension remain uncontrolled.
According to WHO’s 2023 Global Hypertension Report, based on pooled analyses from the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration, only 54% of adults with hypertension are diagnosed, 42% receive treatment, and 21% have their blood pressure controlled. In other words, four in five hypertensives are inadequately treated.
Meanwhile, the report warns that progress is being undermined by commercial interference. WHO has cautioned that industries producing alcohol, tobacco, and ultra-processed foods frequently resist policies such as salt reduction, front-of-pack labeling, marketing restrictions, and health taxes. Protecting governments’ “policy space,” WHO argues, is critical to make hypertension control about both clinical care and healthier food environments.
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Why This Matters for the Philippines
For the Philippines, the report arrives with sobering context. According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), provisional data from January–October 2024 show ischemic heart diseases as the leading cause of death, followed by neoplasms (cancers) and cerebrovascular diseases (strokes).
These mortality patterns mirror PSA findings from earlier years and highlight the heavy toll of uncontrolled blood pressure.
Local studies echo the urgency. Based on a 2024 peer-reviewed study by Abalos et al. involving 5,985 Filipinos aged 60 and older, 69.1% had hypertension; however, 51.5% were untreated, exposing gaps in care for older adults.
Furthermore, the PRESYON-4 survey by the Philippine Heart Association’s Council on Hypertension found that about 37% of adult Filipinos have hypertension. Yet, awareness, treatment, and control rates remain well below optimal levels.
Taken together, these figures reinforce why a national, standardized approach, accurate measurement, protocol-driven treatment, reliable medicine supply, and consistent monitoring, is urgently needed.
The Global Picture
Globally, WHO estimates that 1.4 billion people are living with hypertension, most in low- and middle-income countries. Yet first-line medicines—thiazide-type diuretics, ACE inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs), and calcium-channel blockers—are inexpensive and widely available when supply chains are reliable.
Backing these estimates, the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration published in The Lancet (2021) pooled data from 1,201 population-based studies with 104 million adults across 184 countries. It found that while prevalence remained high from 1990 to 2019, treatment and control improved only modestly, with global control at just 20% by 2019.
What the 2025 Report Asks Countries to Do
WHO’s 2025 narrative centers on four urgent priorities:
Measure accurately, at scale. This means validated devices, trained staff, and routine screening in primary care and community settings. Evidence from the Philippines shows older adults often pass through clinics without a blood pressure check, a missed opportunity for prevention.
Treat to protocol, not preference. Stepwise treatment regimens—starting with a thiazide-type diuretic or calcium-channel blocker, then adding an ACEi/ARB—standardize care and improve outcomes. According to the American Heart Association’s 2025 guideline, standardized regimens also help ministries harmonize care.
Guarantee medicines and follow-up. Hypertension control collapses when drugs run out or patients cannot afford refills. WHO highlights successful case studies where supply chains were stabilized and team-based care (nurses, pharmacists, community health workers) supported patient adherence.
Track performance. Registries and dashboards let managers see which clinics are performing well and which need support. Countries showcased at UNGA—including Canada, Thailand, and India—have already scaled such approaches.
Costs and Benefits: The Policy Math
WHO’s pitch to finance ministries is blunt: controlling hypertension saves both lives and money.
At 50% global control, US$100 billion in annual health-care costs could be saved while preventing millions of strokes and heart attacks. Moreover, beyond clinical care, policy levers such as salt reduction, food labeling, and health taxes can amplify clinical gains.
However, WHO has warned that corporate lobbying often blocks or dilutes these measures, making political leadership crucial.
Case Studies: Turning Commitment Into Action
Canada. By implementing standardized treatment protocols and using national dashboards, Canada raised control rates to over 60%, one of the highest worldwide. This integrated approach reduced heart attack and stroke rates over two decades.
Thailand. Through nurse-led and community volunteer task-sharing, Thailand scaled blood pressure screening nationwide. Coupled with a national salt-reduction program, this pushed control rates toward WHO’s 50% target.
India. Pilots of WHO’s HEARTS package in several states used pharmacies for dispensing and SMS reminders for adherence. Progress is evident, though scaling to 1.4 billion people remains challenging.
Philippines. With ischemic heart disease and stroke as leading killers (PSA, 2024), the Philippines has begun pilot programs with the Department of Health and the Philippine Heart Association to standardize BP checks in barangay health stations. However, experts caution that without national-level medicine security and registry-based monitoring, progress will stall.
The Stakes in Human Terms
Behind the numbers are lives at risk. According to PSA, ischemic heart disease and stroke were among the top causes of death in the Philippines in 2024, claiming thousands of lives linked to uncontrolled hypertension.
Survey evidence paints the same picture. Based on Abalos et al. (2024), 69.1% of older Filipinos had hypertension, yet 51.5% were untreated—a gap exposing the financial, cultural, and systemic barriers patients face.
Globally, the trajectory is no less urgent. WHO estimates that only one in five hypertensives have their condition controlled. Raising control rates to 50% could prevent 76 million deaths and save US$100 billion annually.
Nevertheless, WHO’s panel emphasized that the problem is solvable. Countries like Canada, Thailand, and India show that with protocol-based care, fixed-dose combinations, and digital dashboards, hypertension control can become the norm. For lower-middle-income countries like the Philippines, coupling these reforms with PhilHealth coverage and local government leadership could yield outsized health gains.
The Global Hypertension Report 2025 is less a new discovery than a blueprint for scaling what works. The science is settled, the medicines are cheap, and the delivery models are known. The question, as UNGA leaders put it today, is whether governments will translate commitments into lifesaving action fast enough to bend the global curve of deaths from heart disease and stroke.
Photo by Marek Studzinski on Unsplash
