The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that more than 19 million persons are currently living with diabetes with the number expected to grow to 47 million by 2025.
Owing to this, the global health organisation has asked governments in Africa to invest more funds in the prevention and management of diabetes in order to arrest its destructive impact on people’s lives.
“In the African region, more than 19 million people are living with diabetes and this number is expected to grow to 47 million by 2025.
“Sadly, about two-thirds of people living with diabetes in African countries are unaware of their condition. The known risk factors for diabetes include family history, age, being overweight, having a sedentary lifestyle, unhealthy diet, or use of alcohol or tobacco,” WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, stated in a message on the occasion of the World Diabetes Day 2021.
The organisation also urged governments to also invest in making essential products such as insulin, blood glucometers and test strips available to all communities.
“This should be backed by training of health workers on non-communicable disease prevention and management at the district and community level towards improving service availability
‘Ultimately, services to prevent and manage diabetes care are essential components in realizing Universal Health Coverage, so that all people can access the care they need,” she said.
Moeti also urged all people living with diabetes to protect themselves from severe COVID-19 illness and death, by getting vaccinated against the pandemic as soon as possible.
The WHO Regional Director warned that if left unchecked, without management and lifestyle changes, diabetes could lead to heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, lower limb amputation, visual impairment, blindness and nerve damage, including erectile dysfunction.
According to her, people with diabetes wrre also at higher risk of developing severe COVID-19 symptoms.
She noted that even when patients had been diagnosed, insulin stockouts in public health facilities and the costs of insulin, results in individuals not getting the treatment they need.
“For example, in Ghana, it would take the average worker more than five days of earnings to save up for a monthly supply of insulin. In most African countries, the cost of insulin and monitoring products for diabetes and other noncommunicable diseases, are paid for out of pocket by individuals and their families,” she said.
In addition, Moeti stated that surveys by WHO on access to essential services during the COVID-19 pandemic, showed that access to diabetes care has been severely disrupted in the African Region.
She lamented that one 100 years on from the hugely important innovation, premature death among people with diabetes was still high in many African countries, because of late diagnosis and a lack of access to insulin.
She explained that in order to improve on equitable access to quality diabetes care, WHO launched the Global Diabetes Compact in April 2021.
“This builds on work in recent years to roll out the WHO Package of Essential Noncommunicable Disease (WHO PEN) interventions for primary health care in low-resource settings. So far 21 African countries have started using this package. Benin, Eritrea, Eswatini, Lesotho and Togo have achieved national expansion covering all primary health care facilities,” she said
World Diabetes Day is held every November 14, when the international community using the commemorative event to raise awareness of the growing burden of this disease, and strategies to prevent and treat it.
The theme this year, and until 2023, is “Access to diabetes care,” because too many people still do not have access to diagnostics, medicines and monitoring devices that can help with diabetes management.
WHO said the year also marks the centenary of the discovery of insulin in 1921, a scientific achievement which changed the lives of people living with diabetes.
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