Britannia P&I club has published a report for managing and preventing chronic conditions at sea.
What is a chronic disease?
Many seafarers suffer with a chronic disease, an illness that typically lasts for an extended period, often throughout a person’s life. There are many different types of chronic disease. Cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension and heart failure account for the largest disease burden resulting in 17.9 million deaths per year (WHO 2023), with other common diseases including cancer, chronic respiratory disease and diabetes.
When onboard, seafarers need to appropriately manage any chronic diseases they suffer from, to ensure their overall health and wellbeing and to protect against the risks of their medical condition worsening at sea, where there may be limited access to medical care.
What is hypertension?
Hypertension occurs when the pressure exerted by circulating blood upon the walls of blood vessels is consistently too high. According to the World Health Organization (WHO):
- An estimated 1.28 billion adults aged 30–79 years worldwide have hypertension
- Approximately 46% of adults with hypertension are unaware that they have the condition
- Only 21% of adults with hypertension have it under control.
It can be caused by a range of factors from diet to stress, genetics, age and lack of activity and when undiagnosed or incorrectly managed, hypertension can lead to serious and long-term medical consequences including:
- Heart attacks
- Strokes
- Heart failure
- Peripheral arterial disease
- Aortic aneurysms
- Kidney disease
- Vascular dementia (due to reduced blood flow to the brain).
Given the risks, it is very important for all seafarers to appropriately manage their own health onboard as well as they can.
Click here to read the recommendations by Britannia P&I Club.
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Source: Britannia P&I
