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Diabetics deserve support from govt
2007-02-21 09:01:41
By Editor
Diabetes is increasingly becoming a noticeable disease in Tanzania, as more and more people are diagnosed.
Sad enough, a lot of people, probably more than half of those who are walking around with the ailment, have no idea that they are sick.
Most people in our midst who are aged between 65 and 75 are diabetic.
People who suffer from diabetes are vulnerable to stroke, heart disease, nerve damage, kidney failure and poor wound healing.
They need key specific nutrients, they have to eat the right food, stay active and remain on constant medication.
For the moment, the country’s main concern is to curb the spread of the killer pandemic AIDS.
The other diseases which the government has rightly decided to fight are malaria and Tuberculosis. A lot of money is being used to fight these diseases, and foreign support is forthcoming.
As it goes, it is the wearer who knows where the shoe pinches.
Likewise, those outside our country who want to support our efforts to eradicate disease can only put their money in priority areas which we have chosen.
Those in Tanzania, who are suffering from Tuberculosis and AIDS, for example, are treated freely while the cost of anti-malaria drugs is subsidized so that the sick can afford to buy the required drugs.
This is a correct stance. However, it seems that the predicament of diabetics is out of our minds and we are leaving them to fight the battle on their own.
Our investigations, which were published in our yesterday edition, revealed that more and more people suffering from diabetes are unable to buy the required medicine because they cannot afford to purchase them.
This has resulted in stocks of insulin at the government Medical Stores Department to remain unbought until they expire, while thousands of those who really need them are simply left to die.
Now this is not the right thing to do. According to our investigations, the National Health Policy stipulates that treatment for diabetics should be offered free of charge.
We ask the government to move fast towards that goal so that the suffering of diabetics is alleviated.
They should be made to feel that the society is concerned with what they are going through.
Due to the complex nature of the disease, effective diabetes management is a problem in a poor country like Tanzania, especially because the diabetics need a special diet, different from that of other members of the family.
We cannot expect the government in the present situation to meet the nutrient needs of the diabetics, we can only confidently urge the authorities to use their discretion so that the treatment for diabetes is affordable.
We are also sure that if we communicate this priority to our development partners, they shall be willing to chip in.
We need more diabetes centres where people can check their status, as we are presently doing with HIV, otherwise a lot of people are still walking with the disease until such a time that irreversible damage has occurred.
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