By Chinelo Azike

The Minister of Health Dr. Osagie Ehanire has been tasked to make diabetes control and prevention a  priority in view of the large burden of the disease in the country.

diabetes

Making the call in a letter,  the  Diabetes Control Media Advocacy Group, DICOMAG, a media advocagy group with focus on diabetes, urged Ehanire to devise urgent and concrete measures to address the current heavy burden of the disease in all parts of the country to prevent a looming epidemic.

In the letter signed by the Director of Communication, Mrs Yinka Shokunbi, DICOMAG highlighted the urgency to attend to  the alarming increase of diabetes in Nigeria, its attending complications, deadly consequences and impact on the health and overall wellbeing of the people.

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The International Diabetes Federation  estimates that five million Nigerians are currently living with diabetes and the number of cases is increasing very fast. One in every two people with diabetes in the country is undiagnosed. Worse still, Nigeria is currently recording unacceptable number of lower extremities amputation and death from diabetes foot ulcer.

In a call for adoption of policies to ensure early detection of cases and preventive measures: “More worrisome is the fact that a large number of Nigerians with diabetes only get to know of their status at an advance stage of the disease when complications have set in.

DICOMAG urged the government to take a lead and encourage state governments to embark on immediate campaign for the prevention.

Vanguard