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Sub-Saharan Africa plans joint drive against diabetes
2006-03-08 07:54:58
By Pascal Shija
More than 40 Anglophone countries in sub-Saharan Africa are preparing a report on an integrated strategic plan for diabetes and related health risks.
The report, called The Diabetes Strategy for Africa, is scheduled to be tabled at the World Diabetes Congress in Cape Town, South Africa, in December, Dr Kaushik Ramaiya, Chairman of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), told participants at a two-day workshop on National Diabetes Programmes in Nairobi.
Delegates from Anglophone countries in sub-Saharan Africa, who attended the Nairobi workshop, agreed that they would submit their national diabetes programmes by mid this month.
Participants also learnt at the Nairobi workshop that a similar workshop will take place in West Africa in the next few months so that their national diabetes programmes would be included in the final report intended to be presented to the Cape Town World Diabetes Congress next December.
The Diabetes Strategy for Africa is an IDF African Region’s initiative developed in partnership with the World Health Organisation and the African Union.
The draft of the report, completed in October 2004, was the main document discussed at the recent Nairobi workshop.
’Ministers dealing with healthcare in Africa will be invited to the Cape Town congress,’ Dr Ramaiya told participants attending the Nairobi workshop.
In its preamble, the report says that Africa is on the brink of an epidemic of diabetes in which the toll, already devastating, will be immeasurable.
The preamble also says:’Already many people, including children, die from lack of insulin and it is likely that many are dying of diabetes before even having the opportunity to be diagnosed, let alone treated.’
’Still, more suffer debilitating consequences of diabetes, such as amputation and blindness. The cost of diabetes is huge. It impacts on everybody will grow. Yet, with relatively small investment, diabetes can be controlled and even prevented through simple interventions,’ the preamble notes.
The report says that, in 15 years leading to the year 2010, diabetes in African will increase by 93 per cent.
Those most affected will be in the productive phase of the life cycle.
’Undetected, untreated or poorly controlled, diabetes can result in devastating long-term complications such as blindness, amputation and kidney diseases,’ the report notes.
The report says that, the strategy to control diabetes in Africa includes advocacy, the empowerment of individuals, families and communities, the setting of local, national and regional priorities on what needs to be done, in what order and to what extent.
Other key strategies are the mobilisation of resources, capacity building of healthcare providers and government strategic planning and prioritisation.
Another key strategy, outlined in the report, is the intention to make diabetes ’everybody’s business’ because individuals, families, schools, religious institutions, health professionals, politicians, governments, business and industrial organisations are affected by diabetes.
The report says that, according to IDF, Africa had, three years ago, an estimated 7.1 million diabetic adults of between 20 and 79 years of age.
By year 2025, the number is projected to rise to over 35 million diabetic persons.
At present, diabetes affects almost 200 million people worldwide. The International Diabetes Federation estimates that, this figure will increase to 333 million by the year 2025.
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