“Education to protect the future “: this is the slogan proposed by the International Diabetes Federation on November 14th, during the World Diabetes Day. A slogan with the aim of increasing access to diabetes education, so that we can contribute to improve the lives of more than half a billion people living with diabetes worldwide.
These are many initiatives scheduled for November 14th in the African countries. In Freetown, Sierra Leone, Doctors with Africa CUAMM supports the organization march of diabetes awareness, organized in collaboration with the Health Department. In Ethiopia several proposals are also scheduled: a convention on the topic, a march, awareness-raising and screening activities. The march is going to be in the main squares of Addis Abeba, with the involvement of about 5,000 participants. In Mozambique, CUAMM proposes three dates. In Maputo, also on the 14th, proposes an event that will see the Deputy Minister of Health participation. In the Zambesia region will take place a march and a “health fair” with screening and awareness. In the region of Sofala, the next days, it will be an official moment with the authorities and a health fair.
CUAMM’s commitment in the fight against diabetes has primarily focused in Ethiopia, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Uganda by raising awareness and prevention in health centers and in the villages, realizing screenings to check blood sugar, the state of health in general and the parameters for early detection of non-communicable diseases. The aim is to start treatment as soon as possible. All in collaboration with the local authorities: reaching, in some cases like Mozambique, the drawing up of “Ministerial Guidelines for diabetes care and treatment, in addition to hypertension”. Another example is Sierra Leone, where the first “Guidelines on managing gestational diabetes” have been prepared.
A work made possible thanks to the many people who assure their support and thanks to partnerships with interlocutors like AICS and World Diabetes Foundation.
The biggest problem now is to bring out the hidden part: too often diabetes, like other chronic diseases, is unrecognized as something serious to be treated.
The figures are clear: 537 million people around the world living with diabetes; 24 million just in Africa. However, in Africa, 54% of cases go undiagnosed. The number of people living with diabetes is supposed to rise by 129% by 2045, according to predictions. 1 in every 8 children born alive is affected by hypoglycemia during pregnancy. In 2021, just in Africa, 416,000 people died because of diabetes.
It is clear that in the hospitals where we operate the overall picture of NCDs has grown worse even more due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with a strong impact on healthcare systems: many diabetes, hypertension treatment and prevention services, along with awareness campaigns, have been interrupted – says Father Dante Carraro, Doctors with Africa CUAMM director –. Furthermore, the gap has not yet be filled, due to the severe global crisis that influences everyday life in Africa. Just think that, in Tanzania, the cost of diabetes treatments has tripled.
