Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2021-01-11

Implementation of the Research Project called “Multi-intervention strategy to improve Hypertension prevention and management within Sri Lanka's integrated primary care service delivery model”

- Excessive consumption of salt exceeding the daily prescribed quantities causes hypertension and other cardiovascular diseases. At present, Sri Lanka makes use of the WHO - PEN package for diagnosis and control of cardiovascular diseases when supplying primary health care services and HEARTS package was recently introduced by the World Health Organization (WHO) as an extension of the same package. When moving to the new package, number of requirements have to be accomplished such as utilizing a protocol for the management of hypertension, improving the required technology, developing algorithms for treatment, training staff, preparation of training manuals, updating the health information systems as well as provision of required information through formulating a communication package for minimizing the usage of salt at home.

It has been scheduled to obtain the required funds for the purpose from an organization called Resolve to Save Lives, an international non - government organization as a research grant and an Agreement should be entered into with the institution called Vital Strategies to carry out relevant research under the grant. Accordingly, proposal made by the Minister of Health to enter into the relevant Agreement for the implementation of the research project called “Multi-intervention strategy to improve Hypertension prevention and management within Sri Lanka's integrated primary care service delivery model”, was approved by the Cabinet.