Improving the screening and treatment of hypertension in people living with HIV: An evidence-based policy brief by Malawi’s Knowledge Translation Platform

The problem: High burden of undiagnosed and untreated hypertension in people living with HIV in Malawi. There is high and increasing burden of hypertension in Malawi in the general population and specifically among people living with HIV.1,2 In Malawi, 32% of the adult population have been found to be hypertensive; 94% of these patients are unaware and therefore untreated.3 In a small HIV-infected cohort in Blantyre, 46% of patients were found to have elevated blood pressure.4 The lack of a well organised and funded national hypertension screening and treatment programme leaves hypertension in patients poorly managed.