…As Group Advocates Action Against Spread In Nigeria
The World Health Organization (WHO),has said that premature death among people with diabetes is still high in many African countries on account of late diagnosis and a lack of access to insulin.
The agency’s regional director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti,disclosed this as she joined the international community to commemorates World Diabetes Day, a day set aside to raise awareness of the growing burden of this disease, and strategies to prevent and treat it.
According to her, over 19 million Africans are living with diabetes and this is expected to grow to 47 million by 2025,adding that about two-thirds of people living with diabetes in African countries are unaware of their condition.
She said:”The known risk factors for diabetes include family history, age, being overweight, having a sedentary lifestyle, unhealthy diet, or use of alcohol or tobacco.Left unchecked, without management and lifestyle changes, diabetes can lead to heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, lower limb amputation, visual impairment, blindness and nerve damage, including erectile dysfunction. People with diabetes are also at higher risk of developing severe COVID-19 symptoms.
“Even when patients are diagnosed, insulin stockouts in public health facilities and the costs of insulin, result 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 revealed that surveys by WHO on access to essential services during the COVID-19 pandemic, show that access to diabetes care has been severely disrupted in the African Region.
“To improve equitable access to quality diabetes care, WHO launched the Global Diabetes Compact in April 2021. This builds on work in recent years to rollout 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.
“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.
“So today, I ask governments to invest in making essential products like insulin, blood glucometers and test strips available to all communities. This should be backed by training of health workers in noncommunicable disease prevention and management at the district and community level towards improving service availability. I also urge all people living with diabetes to protect yourself from severe COVID-19 illness and death, by getting vaccinated against COVID-19 as soon as you can”, she stressed.
Meanwhile ,a coalition of frontline non-governmental
organizations has advocated the need for priority action on diabetes care.
The coalition made the call in a statement signed by Runcie Chidebe, Project Pink Blue, and made available to journalists in Abuja on Sunday.
The statement quoted the World Health Organization, to said that nearly 4 million Nigerians are living with diabetes, with type 2 diabetes being more common than type 1. The rates of type 2 diabetes are rising.
The National Action on Sugar Reduction (NASR), a coalition of organisations advocating for policies to combat the impact of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Nigeria, maintains that this constitutes a public health emergency. A 2020 study links increased type 2 diabetes risk with high consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, or soft drinks as they are commonly called.
Recognizing that the Federal Ministry of Health considers non-communicable disease
prevention a national priority, the NASR is asking the government to step up efforts towards implementing a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages.
The coalition maintains that tax funds can be earmarked for providing healthcare to the country’s low-income groups. For Nigeria’s urban poor, soft drinks are readily accessible, but basic aspects of diabetes care such as insulin and blood sugar monitoring devices remain far out of reach.
Coalition representative Runcie Chidebe, Executive Director of cancer organization Project Pink Blue, a member of the coalition, said, “Urgent government action is needed to implement mandatory and effective health policies to reduce the rising non communicable disease rates, particularly type 2 diabetes, in Nigeria. Sugar-sweetened beverage taxes have been successfully implemented in other countries like South Africa and Mexico. It is time for Nigeria to take this step.”
He added:“We cannot afford to see the detrimental health and economic effects of easy access to sugar-sweetened beverages go unchallenged. Revenue from the proposed tax can be used to fund diabetes care for Nigeria’s poor and vulnerable populations.”
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, recently announced a proposed pro-health tax increase on soft drinks in Nigeria in the 2022 budget. During the Public Presentation and Breakdown of the Highlights of the 2022 Appropriation Bill, the minister said that the government will increase excise “duties on carbonated drinks in the 2021 Finance Act.”
In addition to the economic benefits of the tax, the Coalition recognizes the positive effect this will have on the health of Nigerians. While the Coalition applauds the Federal Government for this significant step towards protecting the lives of Nigerians, it says much remains to be done.
