A survey has shown that many Jamaicans are unaware that they are afflicted with hypertension, which is delaying treatment and in some circumstances result in deaths. According to Medical Epidemiologist Non-Communicable Disease and Injury Prevention Unit at the Ministry of Health and Wellness (MOHW), Dr Julie Rowe Porter, the study found that approximately nearly 40,000 of the more than 80,000 Jamaicans afflicted with hypertension did not realise they had the illness. Rowe Porter argued that this is worrying, as hypertension is a silent killer and among other issues, causes stroke, heart attack, heart failure and kidney disease. She said that hypertension and these cardiovascular diseases result in a third of the deaths recorded each year.