By SOLA OGUNDIPE
Worried about the rising incidence of diabetes in Nigeria, President of the Lagos Chapter of the Nigerian Society of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Dr. Afokoghene Isiavwe, has called on the Federal Government to introduce a diabetes prevention education programme in the country.

Making the call on occasion of this year’s World Diabetes Day, Isiavwe, who is also Medical Director, Rainbow Specialist Medical Centre, Lagos, and a Fellow of the American College of Endocrinology, decried the spate of undiagnosed and poorly managed diabetes cases in the country.

Urging government at the top to put in place such a programme within the shortest possible time, she said already, so many children are at risk hence the need to protect the children by teaching them about diabetes.

“Let us have a diabetes prevention education programme in place in schools in Nigeria,” she told Good Health Weekly in a chat.  “We need to put in place diabetes prevention strategies as well as put in more effort to ensure that the average Nigerian, especially the child, is protected.”

The physician, who lamented the increasing prevalence of diabetes over the years, argued that the need for such an education programme had become expedient as a means of passing across important health information about diabetes prevention and management to the general populace.

“We are currently struggling with malaria, tuberculosis, HIV, polio and cholera and I tell you, we do not want to add diabetes that is a burden in all ways. We do not want diabetes that can take away the sight that can cause stroke and kidney failure and even cause death,” she noted.

In her argument, Isiavwe who observed there was the need to teach those who would teach the children said: “We have a lot of work to do, and it would help if can start off with a national diabetes working group that would look after the interest of the programme and look at peculiarities of our diet and come up with policies and guidelines. This should be done in such a way that even the person in the village can benefit and know what to do.”

Describing diabetes as a lifestyle disease, she pointed out that in Nigeria, so many diabetics are unaware of their condition and that in many instances, and even those who are aware are unable to control their condition because they lack access to correct medication or do not engage in appropriate lifestyle that could keep the disease in check.

Noting that children suffering from the condition can be helped to live a normal life, she said this could only be achieved when parents and teachers know what to do to assist the children.

In her argument, Isiavwe said teachers as well school children need to know that diabetes is not contagious and that it can be managed  through insulin injections, blood sugar monitoring, proper diet and oral medications and exercise.

“These are things our children should learn in schools. Through the introduction of the primary prevention policy, teachers in schools at all levels will also be educated about the subject and will be able to make more informed decisions about the diets of pupils in their care.”

Regional statistics on diabetes by the World Health Organisation, WHO, in persons aged 20 – 79 years, predict a 98 percent increase equaling 653 million persons that will be diagnosed with diabetes in Africa by 2030.