By Albert Allotey
Accra, Nov. 14, GNA – The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) Africa and the National Diabetes Association-Ghana has launched this year’s World Diabetes Day with the distribution of free medication to Type ‘2’ diabetics.
The Day was on the theme: “Diabetes and Wellbeing.”
They also indicated the inclusion of fruits in the school feeding programme and encouraging daily exercises in schools as part of efforts in preventing diabetes among children in the early stages of life.
They called on the government for urgent subsidy for diabetic products as most good ones were not subsidized by the National Health Insurance Scheme, leading to the rise in complications.
“For the past two years all efforts to get government subsidy for the Association have failed and we are at this juncture calling for urgent intervention as we do not see any seriousness on the part of the government,” they stated.
They called for the establishment of Diabetes Council to regulate and provide guidelines for the management of diabetes in Ghana.
Madam Elizabeth Esi Denyoh, the Chairperson of the IDF Africa and the President of the National Diabetes Association – Ghana who performed the Launch said; “A dollar spent in preventing diabetes today will yield a dividend of 20 dollars in five years by preventing strokes, hospitalization, producing healthy youth, and absenteeism.”
She said diabetes were a life-threatening condition that was caused by the body’s inability to utilize sugar, leading to a build-up of sugar in the blood, adding; “It is a chronic condition which can result in cardiovascular disease, kidney failure, damage of limb (amputations), stroke, impotence and eye disease that lead to blindness.
“Diabetes is said to be one of the rising killer diseases globally, claiming one life every eight seconds and a limb lost at every 30 seconds, according to reports from WHO and the IDF,” she stated.
Madam Esi Denyoh pointed out that the African continent counts approximately 13.6 million people with diabetes, and that Africa Region of IDF, which mainly includes sub-Saharan Africa, counts approximately seven million people with diabetes while estimates for the region for 2025 are likely to double and reach 15 million.
“The greatest increase in rates was expected to occur in Asia and Africa, where most people with diabetes will probably live in 2030. The increase in rates in developing countries follows the trend of urbanization and lifestyle changes, including a ‘Western style’ diet,” she noted.
She said the way forward to stem the diabetes conditions was to consider the care by Primary Care Physicians and General Physicians (Internists) in the regions of the world by empowering them to wage a war against the diseases through education and empowerment.
“At the same time, we must understand that many of these medical personnel care about giving good management to their people with diabetes, but they are not interested in becoming ‘experts’ in diabetes care,” the Chairperson stated.
Madam Esi Denyoh said it was about time academia looked at the ground realities, which faced medical personnel by coming up with simple clinical practice recommendations which could be used by them in their day-to-day practice in their settings.
The World Health Organization has dedicated the Day to creating awareness worldwide on diabetes, which is spreading and has called for concern in every country.
GNA