A nationwide joint study on hypertension (high blood pressure) intervention was launched in Beijing over the weekend as the number of people diagnosed with the nation's most common chronic disease continues to soar.

Known as "CHIEF" (Chinese Hypertension Intervention Efficacy Study), the study, headed by the Beijing-based Fuwai Hospital, will be the largest of its kind in China, involving more than 150 medical institutions specializing in hypertension treatment and research.

"As a pillar program initiated by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Technology, the study aims to work out a comprehensive way to efficiently contain hypertension," Professor Hu Shousheng, president of Fuwai Hospital, said while addressing the audience at the launch ceremony.

The number of Chinese suffering from high blood pressure has increased 31 percent over the past decade to 160 million, according to statistics from the Ministry of Health.

Uncontrolled hypertension can lead to strokes, heart attacks, heart failure and kidney failure. This is why high blood pressure is often called the "silent killer", medical experts said.

Running over five years, the study will monitor 13,000 high blood pressure patients, in terms of their clinical care, at collaborating hospitals and special research organizations nationwide.

In addition, because many people have high blood pressure for years but show no symptoms, a community-based detection and intervention scheme will also be conducted using 50,000 people, Professor Liu Lisheng, the president of the World Hypertension League and head of the study's academic research, said.

"Thanks to the great efforts by health workers involved and Dawnrays Pharmaceutical (Holdings) Ltd, which provides free medicine, the study will definitely run smoothly," Liu said, urging more enterprises to take on their social responsibilities as well as making profits.

Gao Yi, the president of Dawnrays in Suzhou, in east China's Jiangsu Province, said it was his company's responsibility to support the government-backed plan and help push forward the scientific research and innovation.

(China Daily April 2, 2007)