Prevalence, mortality and control of hypertensive disease in Australia.

: Hypertensive diseases have long been recognized as a major medical problem in Australia, but until the 1950s measures for controlling hypertension were limited and of doubtful effectiveness. Great efforts were made to identify and deal with such remediable primary causes as unilateral renal disease, endocrine disorders of the adrenal cortex and medulla and coarctation of the aorta, but the yield was small and there was little to offer the great majority of patients who were suffering from essential hypertension, including its malignant form. Long holidays, especially sea cruises, sedation and venesection were widely prescribed but with little confidence and even less benefit.