African diabetes drive

Sub-Saharan Africa is little covered in terms of the scale of its diabetes problem. Like many diseases on this continent, the number of diabetics is unknown and can only be estimated. However, a new initiative in Sub-Saharan Africa will aim to provide an integrated strategic plan with the aim of countering diabetes and the associated health risks that it causes.
The report will be entitled The Diabetes Strategy in African, and will be announced at the World Diabetes Congress in Cape Tow, South Africa. The congress is scheduled to take place in December, and the report will be ready by then according to the Chairman of the IDF (International Diabetes Federation) who spoke at a workshop on National Diabetes Programmes in Nairobi. Delegates who attended the workshop from forty Anglophone sub-Saharan African countries agreed to submit their National Diabetes Programmes this month.
The new Diabetes Strategy for Africa has been created by the IDF in partnership with the WHO (World Health Organisation) and the African Union. The introduction to the report highlights the fact that African, like so many other countries, is teetering on the brink of a diabetes disaster. Furthermore, the situation could be complicated by poor healthcare facilities. The report states, ‘Already many people, including children, die from lack of insulin and it is likely that many are dying of diabetes before even having the opportunity to be diagnosed, let alone treated.’
The report claims that within fifteen years, diabetes in Africa could increase by a figure above 90 per cent. The IDF estimates 7.1 million adult diabetics as of 2003. The number is rising steadily.