With about 15 million people in sub – Saharan Africa including Nigeria unaware of their diabetes status and the number expected to rise to around 28 million in 2030, Graceland Foundation is advocating for regular screening for diabetes to avert the looming epidemic. Statistics available has shown that 78 per cent of people with diabetes today in Nigeria and the world at large are undiagnosed.
Speaking during a free health mission organised by Graceland Foundation for residents of Ipaja Estate, Iyana Ipaja, Lagos, Regional Director, of the organisation, Mrs. Mercy Ekpoke, lamented that despite the dangers pose by undiagnosed diabetes enough attention has not been paid to the disease in Nigeria.
According to her, diabetes has long been neglected by the family, society and government. There is need for people to go for regular diabetes screening at least every three months, particularly when they are above 40 years. “When you drink and you don’t exercise and your job is stressful, you have to be going for checkups because these are the things that could cause diabetes. “
For you to know you have diabetes, there are signs and symptoms like going to urinate regularly at night, tiredness, when you feel so shaky sometimes because you don’t know if you are hypo or hyper, or your sugar level is high. These are the signs. Some people experienced weight loss even then when you don’t have these signs you might be having diabetes.”
Continuing, she further decried the complications associated with diabetes. She described diabetes as when the sugar level in the body is not going round, and the body not making use of the sugar in the body. “When carbohydrate is not there and your body is not making use of the sugar it will bring about high cholesterol, high blood pressure and that can lead to stroke and can also lead to lots of complications even your vision will be affected.”
On the free screening and treatment exercise, she said since 2008, 70 percent of people they screened at each outreach have undetected diabetes. “Today we are targeting to screen about 500 people and most of the people we have screened so far have diabetes without knowing.