Doha, Qatar • 19 May 2012 – Under the patronage and directives of His Excellency Dr. Mohammed bin Saleh Al-Sada, Minister of Energy and Industry & Chairman and Managing Director of Qatar Petroleum, QP’s Medical Services Department marked the global celebration of World Hypertension Day on Thursday, May 17.

The occasion, which was organised under the guidance of Mr. Ahmad Ali Abdulla Al-Mawlawi, Director for Administration, and Dr. Mahmood Abdul Rahman Al-Jaidah, Manager for Medical Services at QP, included a range of activities intended to further raise awareness about high blood pressure and to educate QP employees on what they could do to effectively manage the disease.

“Marking the observance of World Hypertension Day is part of the full calendar of health promotion programs that we regularly conduct throughout the year to safeguard the health of our employees and their families,” said Dr. Al-Jaidah. “We are confident that the resulting awareness on hypertension and its health effects would go a long way in our continued efforts to address this preventable disease.”

First launched in 2005, World Hypertension Day is an initiative of the World Hypertension League (WHL), a Canada-based organization that was founded in 1984. The WHL is currently made up of 95 member organizations, consisting mainly of hypertension societies from all over the world. For this year’s celebration of World Hypertension Day, the WHL had selected the theme, “Healthy Lifestyle – Healthy Blood Pressure,” to highlight the importance of good health habits in preventing or controlling the disease.

In line with this, among the activities organized last Thursday by QP’s Medical Services Department was a hypertension screening program at the corporation’s Centre for Health & Wellness along C-Ring Road. A large number of QP personnel who were based in Doha participated in the program, and they also attended the health awareness presentations and counselling sessions conducted by the corporation’s medical doctors, pharmacists and dieticians.

In the run up to this year’s World Hypertension Day, the department conducted an intensive information campaign not only to announce the event but also to provide important information about high blood pressure to all QP employees. The information campaign explained what hypertension is all about, how it can affect the body, and how it is diagnosed.