Janet Silvera, Senior Gleaner Writer

WESTERN BUREAU:

A DIRT track makes its way to the door leading into the tiny one-bedroom board house that provides a sanctuary for 51-year-old hypertensive Claude Campbell of Martin Castle in Hanover.

Campbell lives in abject poverty in a parish labelled 'Cinderella'. He pops four different high blood pressure and cholesterol tablets daily. It is his faith in God that gives him strength and hope.

A major stroke at age 37 debilitated the left side of Campbell's body, taking with it not just his agility, but also his prowess as a painter and mason. Today, a wooden cane plays the role of his best friend, assisting him each time he leaves his bed.

"I am now 51, but I don't look like 51, do I?" But before this writer could respond, Campbell interjected: "I give thanks to God, because I didn't have to be here this long."

Purchasing drugs

Campbell is one of the 450,000 Jamaicans in the age group 15-74 suffering from hypertension. His case is not much different from many others. "It has been difficult to purchase drugs. Had it not been for my sisters and the brother that I live with, I don't know how I would have survived," he told The Sunday Gleaner.

Campbell also attends the health clinic at the Noel Holmes Hospital in Lucea and accesses the National Health Fund (NHF)-subsidised drug service.

Campbell's home has no electricity, and it was only earlier this year that piped water was installed at his home, replacing the two drums he had previoulsy used to store rainwater.

Research shows that the incidence of the non-communicable disease hypertension, is more prevalent in rural areas and more burdensome in low- and middle-income communities. This was evident when The Sunday Gleaner visited Hanover on Friday morning.

Approximately five minutes from where Claude Campbell lives, 64-year-old Nora Gordon of Ice Brissette in Lucea sat outside her small, wooden house. It is normal for her to have palpitations and for her head to hurt due to severe, uncontrolled hypertension. In the 30 years that she has suffered with this condition, Gordon has acquired two other enemies: diabetes and arthritis.

Crippled on the left side

She, too, walks with a wooden stick and is crippled on the left side of her body from a major stroke.

"Her doctor says that her condition is mainly due to poor compliance with the medications," Gordon's daughter, Marcia Hughfield-Lee, revealed. "She needs the drug, but because of the high cost factor, we can't afford it."

According to Hughfield-Lee, her mother is a beneficiary of the state-run NHF and Jamaica Drug For The Elderly Programme, but most times, she is only able to afford one out of seven prescription drugs. "When we buy, she can't take them every day, so we have resorted in the past to using one every other day so that it serves longer," Hughfield-Lee disclosed.

She sometimes credits the medication, as the average monthly expenditure runs close to $10,000.

"She was on Norvasc, which the doctor said was the best high blood pressure tablet, but we couldn't afford it and she came off," added Hughfield-Lee.

From one house to the next, one family to the next, the comments were similar. "I have been hypertensive since age 17," Chantol Lee-Whyte told The Sunday Gleaner.

Out of reach

She has tried just about every tablet prescribed for patients with high blood pressure, but only the highest strength of Norvasc works for her.

"Had it not been for my aunt who is a pharmacist in the United States and a friend who is a doctor there, I would probably be gone by now, because I just can't afford to buy Norvasc and it is the best drug around for people with my condition," she related.

Lee-Whyte is manager of the Madden's Funeral Home in Lucea, and even with her salary, she said, the price of the medication she uses is outside of her reach. "There was a time I used the generic brand, but it's no longer around," she disclosed.

One day without Norvasc, says Lee-Whyte, leaves her shaky and nervous: "I retain water in my legs and fingers, suffer from a tingling feeling and headaches."

Janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com.