The scourge of Diabetes
Barely a week to this year’s World Diabetes Day on the 14th November, statistics released by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) in its recent Diabetes Atlas show that diabetes is a leading cause of death among those aged between 20 and 79 years especially in Africa. Knowing that the population of Nigeria constitutes more than one-tenth of Africa’s population, and considering that more than half of those with diabetes are un-diagnosed, there is enough reason for Nigerians to worry.
The Diabetes Atlas revealed also that 371 million people suffer from diabetes globally, and that 4 out of 5 persons with this ailment live in low and middle income countries. Thus, contrary to perceptions that diabetes is a health condition bedeviling only the affluent, it is also common among the less affluent and poor.
The IDF describes diabetes as a “chronic condition that occurs when the body cannot produce enough or effectively use insulin… Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas that allows glucose from food to enter the body’s cells where it is converted into energy needed by muscles and tissues to function. As a result, a person with diabetes does not absorb glucose properly, and glucose stays circulating in the blood (hyperglycemia) damaging tissues over time. This damage leads to life-threatening health complication”
Though one is predisposed to suffer diabetes if one of the person’s forebears had suffered such, there are strong indications that what one eats and lifestyle patterns could make someone run the risk of suffering from diabetes. Health and nutrition experts have advised that much intake of carbohydrates and food lacking much in fibre and sedentary lifestyles makes one prone to diabetes or could escalate diabetic conditions. With the expert estimation that over 30 percent of Nigerians are obese, the risk of diabetes is high.
With massive urban migration to cities in Nigeria, the growth in the number of those who do jobs that make them sit long hours for five days in a week, and also long stay in vehicles during long traffic jams in a city like Lagos, and with less or no time devoted to exercises or long walks, city dwellers are prone to diabetes. Alas, some upper middle and upper class working persons in the country see trekking as a demeaning activity for people of less means. They would rather sit in chauffeur-driven cars to and fro the office. Such a lifestyle fails to burn calories and predisposes one to diabetes.
Diabetes is becoming a scourge. In 2012 alone, 4.8 million people died of the disease and $471 billion was spent on managing it. Of all the regions in the world, Africa spends the least on diabetes; less than 1 percent of health expenditure is spent on diabetes.
Nigeria’s health authorities should rise up to the challenge of curbing the scourge of the diabetes disease condition. The first step to take is to generate public awareness because most people are unaware that they are diabetic. The campaign should also encourage healthy lifestyles.
The second and fundamental step is to increase the expenditure on the treatment of diabetes. This can be done through the provision of appropriate drugs and the availability of such to all levels of health care at affordable rates.
Health is wealth. The silent decimation of active and resourceful persons is a loss in human capital and a threat to economic growth and development.