News

Changi General Hospital performs revolutionary procedure to treat high blood pressure

On Monday 26 September, Madam Maimon Binte Shaaban became one of the first patients in Singapore to undergo a revolutionary procedure, Renal Denervation, to treat her uncontrolled high blood pressure. She joins a small but growing group of hypertension patients in the world who have turned to Renal Denervation to control resistant high blood pressure conditions.

Madam Maimon suffered from hypertension for nearly 40 years. In the past year, her condition worsened despite taking up to four anti-hypertensive medications and adhering to a low-salt diet. Her blood pressure peaked at 200 mmHg, and her risk for stroke was high. She had run out of options until her cardiologist, Dr Rohit Khurana, offered this revolutionary procedure to her and her family. The family decided that renal denervation was the best chance for Madam Maimon to regain a good quality of life.

HPB LAUNCHES ONE-STOP SCREENING PROGRAMME AND GENERAL PRACTITIONER NETWORK

In a bid to increase the number of elderly residents being screened for chronic diseases and cancers, the Health Promotion Board (HPB) has launched a community screening programme that makes important screenings easily accessible to residents in the heartlands. Residents in Whampoa are the first to benefit from the programme that will eventually be rolled out to other areas in Singapore.

The one-stop screening programme will offer screening for key chronic conditions – diabetes, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol and obesity, and selected cancers – breast, cervical and colorectal cancers at subsidised rates for the elderly needy residents. To encourage more residents to take up screening, HPB has sought the co-operation of both the private and public sectors to bring down the costs of the tests for needy elderly residents.

60% OF WORLD’S LIVER DISEASE CASES ARE FROM ASIA PACIFIC

Hepatitis B causes 80 percent of liver cancer,

leading to one in six of all cancer deaths in Singapore

Hepatitis B is an infectious illness caused by hepatitis B virus, which infects the liver and may cause inflammation of this vital organ (hepatitis). Hepatitis B has two possible phases; acute and chronic.