John was diagnosed diabetic at 40, but instead of focusing on the
disease, he ignored it. After all, he didn’t feel sick. But gradually,
his health was failing.
Today, John, now 60, is a shadow of his old self. Over the last 20
years, he has watched his body slowly disintegrate. A host of
circulatory problems arising from his diabetic condition has cost him
his vision, as well as nerve and bony damage to his left foot. Worse
still, he is concerned about his heart. He has reason to because more
than two thirds of people with diabetes die of stroke and other
heart-related problems.
Although John is finally getting treatment, his prospects could have
been much better if medical intervention had come much earlier.
Diabetes
is a chronic disease that quietly consumes the human body, to the
extent that you cannot walk, you cannot stand, you cannot function and
ultimately you cannot live.
There are millions of people like John in Nigeria. Six million
Nigerians have diabetes. About half of this number of persons have their
cases diagnosed and even less are under treatment. This makes Nigeria
the country with the highest number of diabetic patients in Africa. In
fact diabetes is the most common chronic illness that is being managed
all over the country.
Diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs when the pancreas is no
longer able to produce insulin, or when the body cannot make good use of
the insulin it produces. Insulin is a hormone made by the pancreas,
that acts like a key to let glucose from the food we eat pass from the
blood stream into the cells in the body to produce energy.
The disease may remain undetected for many years and the diagnosis is
often made when a complication appears or a routine blood or urine
glucose test is done. It is often, but not always, associated with
overweight or obesity, which itself can cause insulin resistance and
lead to high blood glucose levels. People with type 2 diabetes can often
initially manage their condition through exercise and diet. However,
over time most people will require oral drugs and or insulin.
In Nigeria, an estimated five million people are suffering from
diabetes. If this sounds bad, experts warn that the scenario is likely
to get even worse as the number of diabetics is expected to double
within the next 20 years, to the extent that 63 percent of undiagnosed
and many that are diagnosed are not being correctly controlled. As much
as 76 percent of deaths due to diabetes occur in people under the age of
60 in Africa. The bad news continues.
That the cost of diabetes management is prohibitive and gradually
increasing is equally worrisome. Already, most patients seen at Federal
and state teaching and specialist hospitals are often at the late stage
when effective treatment is too late and only palliative measures can be
administered.
What is the community doing about diabetes? What is it doing to
subsidise some of the drugs for its treatment? What about the
availability, and education of the public and at community level?
Just last week, some medical experts expressed concern over the
burden of diabetic disorders and the rising cost of its management in
the country.
Consultant Physician/Endocrinologist, Obafemi Awolowo University,
OAU, Ile Ife, Osun State, Prof. Babatope Kolawole, said the magnitude of
diabetes in the country is too alarming to be ignored. He noted that
according to statistics, the prevalence of diabetes varies. It is a
disease of urbanisation and from previous studies, the highest burden is
in Lagos which has a prevalence of over 7 percent per population.
Kolawole blamed urbanisation and lifestyle factors as well as
physical exercise as factors driving the epidemic and recommends that
reliable preventive measures must target these. “Diabetes is a risk
factor for so many other problems, and also contributes a lot to
disorders such as kidney disease, blindness and amputation of the foot
in Nigeria. It can precipitate emergencies that can lead to death and
these are the issues related to poorly treated or untreated diabetes and
no effort should be spared in instituting preventive measures at all
levels of healthcare delivery in the country.”
On his own, the Chief Medical Director, Lagos State University
Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, Prof. Adewale Oke, said most diabetes cases
seen at the hospital are in the late stage. “The commonest complications
I see involve the blood vessels and the heart. It is a common cause of
myocardial infarction and can affect the heart muscles. There can be
heart failure, and renal failure. When you are passing too much water
without any explanation, you should investigate,” he urged.
Oke, an experienced cardiologist noted that Lagos State is thinking
of starting a health insurance scheme to cover diabetes. “It has been
read at the state House of Reps. but is yet to be passed, and once that
is happening there will be better for management of diabetes especially
in the area of drugs for management.”
One of the big worries about diabetes, according to Dr. Dorothy
Esangbedo, an experienced paediatrician and renowned endocrinologist, is
the increasing burden of diabetes in infants and children. Esangbedo,
who is also President, Union of National African Paediatric Societies
and Associations, UNAPSA, regretted that even infants and children are
not spared the burden of diabetes.
“There is increase in diabetes in children. Taking a situation report
today, you will find that diabetes in children is lower in Africa than
Europe and the Americas, but in terms of trends over time, the rate of
increase is even more in sub-Sahara Africa so much so that they are
saying to us that in decades to come, diabetes would be one of the major
problems we will be facing.”
The signs and symptoms of diabetes in a child are actually the same
as in the adult. The only difference is that the child cannot complain
so the mother has to be the one to notice these symptoms, so just like
the adult will have problem of excessive passing of water so will the
child. “The mother can then notice that the child is passing urine too
frequently, and she can also notice that the child is too thirsty and
babies tend to present with infections as skin lesions and that is when
you see frequent occurrence of skin infections in the child or certain
effects of pigmentation of the skin.
This is also a sign that the mother needs to complain about that
child. They also tend to be weak, they will not grow, will have weight
loss and most importantly, the doctor will want to know if there is
family history of diabetes because that is a major pointer that diabetes
is possible and tests should be done.”
If there is gestational diabetes, Esangbedo notes that it could
affect the child in future and it is an indication that both the mother
and the child should be closely watched for diabetes. “In the future, It
is usually a good pointer because even though the mother recovers from
pregnancy, she should still be closely monitored so that she can quickly
put in place the lifestyle strategies that would prevent the onset of
the disease.”
With the recent introduction of its brand of insulin, Sanofi, a
global healthcare leader, describes this as commitment to improving
access and ensuring availability to high-quality, efficacious solutions
to improve the management of diabetes for patients. In addition to
better support patients in the management of the disease, Sanofi is
supporting opening of 12 dedicated diabetes and hypertension clinics in
partnership with health authorities. The first clinic was recently
inaugurated, at LASUTH.
“We believe in Public-Private partnership, that is why we are
standing by the State government to fight NCDs as a whole and diabetes
in particular,” said Head of Medical and Regulatory, Sanofi, Dr. Inoussa
Fiffen. “By doing so, we believe that the management of diabetes should
be decentralised and for the meantime, we need to focus on the rural
areas so that the journey of the diabetic is smooth.”
Source: vanguardngr.com
NB: Glucose from the food we eat pass from the blood stream into the cells in the body to produce energy. Since glucose has a recommended range in the blood, a person is diagnosed as diabetic when his or her blood glucose is above or exceeds this recommended range (known as excess condition of sugar).
