Call for sustainable funding to control hypertension, blamed for 52 percent of heart-disease deaths

The risk of illness and premature death from hypertension is rising alarmingly in Bangladesh. In 2024, about 283,800 people died of heart disease in the country, and hypertension was responsible for 52 percent of those deaths.

These figures and recommendations were presented on Wednesday (11 November 2026) at a journalists' workshop titled 'Sustainable financing for hypertension control in Bangladesh: progress, barriers and what to do', held at the BIP Conference Room in the capital. The research and advocacy organisation PROGGA (Knowledge for Progress) organised the workshop with support from the Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI). Twenty-five journalists from print, television and online media took part.

The workshop was told that about 570,263 people die in Bangladesh each year from various non-communicable diseases, which is about 71 percent of all deaths, and 19 percent of those are premature deaths.

According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) 'Health and Morbidity Status Survey-2025', hypertension ranks first on the list of the country's top 10 diseases.

World Bank data say only 4.2 percent of Bangladesh's health budget is spent on controlling non-communicable diseases. Because of insufficient allocation, the regular supply of free hypertension medicine at community clinics and at the NCD corners of upazila health complexes is being disrupted.

Although the government has raised the health budget, there remains a shortage of adequate and uninterrupted funding for hypertension control. The workshop said that if a significant part of the increased health budget is spent on controlling hypertension and other non-communicable diseases, the risk of premature death can be reduced.

Dr Md Enamul Haque, director general of the Health Economics Unit, said the health allocation in the current budget has been raised from 5.3 percent to 7.4 percent, which is commendable. Now part of that increased allocation must be invested in hypertension control, he said.

Discussants at the workshop included GHAI associate director (non-communicable diseases) Ezine Ezekwem and Bangladesh country lead Muhammad Ruhul Quddus, Anti Tobacco Media Alliance (ATMA) convener Mortuza Haider Liton and PROGGA executive director ABM Zubair.

PROGGA programme head Hasan Shahriar and programme officer Samiha Binte Kamal presented the subject-based presentations at the workshop.