Celebrating World Physiotherapy Day with Stroke Education and High Blood Pressure Screening

At FONTEN we are celebrating all the wonderful physiotherapists at FONTEN and our colleagues around the world with a community outreach day of high blood pressure screening and stroke education. Hypertension (high blood pressure) is prevalent in Haiti. Studies have shown incidence rates of hypertension between 39% to 69% in Haitian communities and that less than 25% of adults over 40 have normal blood pressure. These numbers make a direct impact on almost every family because hypertension contributes to or directly causes most strokes, kidney failure and heart attacks. Stroke alone is one of the leading causes of death in Haiti at 11%. Many of our patients are recovering from strokes, re-learning how to move and walk. Awareness has grown significantly in the past few years and at FONTEN we are working hard to keep educating about risk factors, dangers and medication, screening for hypertension, liaising with the clinics and hospitals, and advocating for our patients in an effort to limit the number of our friends and neighbours who are killed or seriously injured by strokes.