BEYOND THE OUTREACH: CONFRONTING THE SILENT BURDEN OF HYPERTENSION

Our team, OLGNova, was on the ground for the Akwanga Free Medical Outreach, held from 12–16 October 2026 in Nasarawa State, Nigeria. The outreach was organised by the Jennifer Etuh Foundation (JEF), with Pro-Health International Africa as its implementing partner, and support from Peace House and the Nasarawa State Government.

Beyond the medical consultations, treatments and interventions that characterised the outreach, one critical health concern stood out: elevated blood pressure and the urgent need for greater awareness, early detection and timely intervention.

Hypertension is often called the silent killer because it can develop without obvious symptoms while increasing the risk of life-threatening complications. Many people live with elevated blood pressure for years without knowing their status, making routine screening and access to appropriate healthcare essential.

This concern extends beyond the outreach tent and into the wider community. It raises important questions about how many people are living with elevated blood pressure without adequate awareness, how early they are being identified, and what can be done to bridge the gap between screening, diagnosis and treatment.

At Akwanga, Femi Akinbo, OLGNova’s Team Lead for the medical outreach, participated in a community blood pressure survey organised by the Jennifer Etuh Foundation (JEF), with Miss Florence Ternufa coordinating the exercise on behalf of JEF, in collaboration with Pro-Health International. Dr. Joy Audu of Pro-Health International joined the team to provide medical expertise. The exercise involved visits to offices, schools, motor parks and marketplaces to screen community members for both their blood pressure readings and assess their awareness of their blood pressure status.

Our preliminary findings revealed that 60% of the community members screened had elevated blood pressure readings, with little or no prior awareness of their condition.

Similarly, during a recent consultation meeting with Jennifer Etuh Foundation (JEF), data gathered from the Kagoro Medical Outreach in Kaduna State showed that 45.8% of adults screened had blood pressure readings within the hypertensive range.

These findings are a sobering reminder of the burden of hypertension, often called the silent killer because it can remain undetected for years while increasing the risk of life-threatening complications.

The question is no longer whether we need to pay more attention to hypertension. It is how urgently we can improve awareness, screening, diagnosis, treatment and follow-up.

In response to these emerging findings, OLGNova Limited has identified an opportunity to develop and publish a research study that can inform targeted health interventions, strengthen JEF's evidence-based healthcare programming and draw greater attention to the screening-to-diagnosis gap among adults attending free medical outreaches in Nigeria.

We are working towards publishing our research study titled: ELEVATED BLOOD PRESSURE READINGS AND THE SCREENING-TO-DIAGNOSIS GAP AMONG ADULTS ATTENDING A MULTI-STATE FREE MEDICAL OUTREACH PROGRAMME IN NIGERIA, 2023–2026

Follow OLGNova.org and Jennifer Etuh Foundation for updates on the publication and the insights it brings.

We believe that translating these findings into actionable evidence can help our partner, Jennifer Etuh Foundation (JEF), strengthen its case for strategic investment and attract support from national and international funding bodies, development partners and relevant public institutions.

Our goal is bigger than publishing a research paper. It is to turn evidence into action, partnerships into sustainable interventions, and outreach into lasting healthcare impact — helping JEF expand access to quality, targeted and life-changing healthcare for underserved communities across Nigeria.