By Stanley Senya
Accra, Nov. 7, GNA – Mrs Elizabeth Esi Denyoh, Chairperson, International Diabetes Federation, Africa Region, has called on the public to treat diabetes as an emergency to prevent children and adults under 40 years dying from the disease.
Currently, about 1,400 children under age 25 and 800,000 adults live with diabetes in Ghana.
Speaking at the launch of the 2023 World Diabetes Day, in Accra, on Tuesday, Mrs Denyoh said diabetes was a leading cause of blindness, lower limb amputations, renal transplants, co-morbid conditions, and cardiovascular diseases in the country.
Therefore, she said, the disease, if not treated as a priority in Ghana would slow productivity across the country which could lead to economic instability.
“In terms of diabetes control, Ghana scores 14 per cent worldwide”, Mrs Denyoh added.
The theme for this year’s commemoration is “Access to Diabetes Care.”
Mrs Denyoh said diabetes was one of the rising killer diseases globally, claiming one life every eight seconds and a limb lost at every 30 seconds, saying, “if not given the necessary attention we would lose more innovative people in the country.”
“It is time for us to come out of our ivory towers of academia and look at the ground realities which are faced by the medical personnel as well as our people with diabetes,” she said.
Mrs Denyoh said if diabetes was treated as an emergency, it would prevent congestion at hospitals, produce healthy youth and stop absenteeism among public workers.
She appealed for subsidy for diabetic products and urged the Ghana Standard Authority to check and validate diabetic drugs before being sold in the market.
She also encouraged the public to eat right, exercise, eat more vegetables, less carbohydrates, and a lot of checkups to prevent diabetes for persons under 4o years.
Mrs Denyoh added that the International Diabetes Federation through its education modules was ready to roll out diabetes Education in all districts.
Mrs Denyoh advocated the set-up of a diabetes council to ensure effective policy implementation as done in other countries like Côte d’Ivoire, Togo, and Nigeria.
World Diabetes Day is the primary global awareness campaign focusing on diabetes mellitus and is held on November 14 each year.
GNA