Diabetes On The Rise In Francistown �Medic
Pini Bothoko | Monday November 16, 2015 15:21
Doing the overview of diabetes at Donga Clinic that specialises in diabetes in the northern part of Botswana, Dr Ronald Luke warned people about the increased concern for the escalation of diabetes. He said this during the commemoration of World Diabetes Day held at the Donga kgotla last Friday.
The commemoration was held under the theme, “Healthy living and diabetes’ with the slogan ‘Diabetes: protect our future’.
Luke said that every month the clinic records around 400 diabetes patients and advised people to screen and test for the disease in time. Diabetes is a lifelong condition that causes a person’s blood sugar levels to become too high. Luke said in 2011 after realising the rising number of diabetes cases and its complications, government was forced to open Donga Diabetes Clinic to focus on fighting the disease.
He said they have observed that a of people are diabetic but do not know because they do not do regular tests, but health problems are often detected in their late stage, which makes it difficult to manage the conditions.
“We currently have 3,000 diabetes patients here. A research from International Diabetes Federation (IDF) shows that in Botswana about 2.7 percent of elders are diabetic, which is about 30,000 people, but this is not the actual number because a majority of people have not tested,” said Luke. Luke added that a majority of people seek medical assistance late with some already blind or having serious complications pleading with the community to screen in time.
Officiating at the event the Member of Parliament (MP) for Francistown East, Buti Billy said a majority of people in towns and cities usually do not eat healthily as they mostly eat junk foods and do little or no exercise.
He said that the common symptoms for diabetes are chronic fatigue, unusual weight loss or gain, frequent urination, disproportionate thirst, intense hunger and blurred vision to mention but a few. Billy advised people to screen for diabetes in time saying its complications can cause other deadly diseases like kidney problems, eye diseases, heart diseases as well as erectile dysfunction. He said about 285 million people all over the world are affected by diabetes and it is also expected that this figure may rise to 435 million by year 2030 if no action is implement to stop diabetes.
Billy said in order to address the blinding effects of diabetes in Botswana the Ministry of Health (MoH) established four-diabetes retinopathy screening centres across the country.
He said World Diabetes Day is a call to all those who are responsible for diabetes care to contribute in controlling the disease. He said for diabetes patients this is a message for empowerment so that they can follow proper ways, which include eating the right food and exercise to improve health. He said for doctors and health care professionals it is an alert to improve knowledge so that proper cure can be discovered with the government implementing proper policies for prevention of the disease.
“This is the time for the general public to be alert against diabetes and understand the serious impact of diabetes. Government spent a lot of money in fighting this disease the money that could be used for major country developments whilst complications of the disease could be avoided,” said Billy.