from The Formula by Tom Frieden — Thanks to Kate B.
In 1990, stroke killed South Koreans at a rate of 248 per 100,000. By 2023, that rate had fallen to 32. That’s an 87 percent drop. A generation ago, only about one in twenty Korean adults with high blood pressure, which is still the world’s biggest killer, had it under control. Today, six in ten do.
I’ve worked on health programs in dozens of countries over four decades, and I can’t think of a single example of more impressive progress against cardiovascular disease. Korea didn’t get lucky. It made a series of deliberate choices, sustained them across changes in government, and watched as its people stopped being hospitalized, disabled, and killed by preventable strokes and heart attacks.
The story deserves to be much better known—both because Korea has earned the credit and because every country in the world can make progress at least this fast. Here’s what happened.
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Korea got there by doing something most countries still haven’t done. It made sure that every adult has a regular medical provider whose job is to keep blood pressure in check and whose performance is measured on whether they do. (continued on Page 2 or here)