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Nigeria recorded 1.56million new diabetes cases in 2015, says expert

By Stanley Akpunonu
25 August 2016   |   2:32 am
President of the Diabetes Association of Nigeria (DAN), Dr. Mohammed Alkali, has revealed that about 1.56 million new cases of diabetes were discovered in 2015 alone in the country.
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• DAN canvasses policy document on ailment

President of the Diabetes Association of Nigeria (DAN), Dr. Mohammed Alkali, has revealed that about 1.56 million new cases of diabetes were discovered in 2015 alone in the country.

Alkali, who said this in Lagos during the third Podiatry and Diabetes Foot Care workshop, reiterated that Nigeria has in total about five million people living with the disease.

According to him, the discovered alarming rate of about 1.56 million in 2015 is evidence that they are still many undiagnosed cases out there.

He also noted that the incidence of juvenile diabetes, thus with people less than 17 and infants have been on the rise too.

Alkali explained that diabetes is not just a disease of sugar, but the entire body because it affects the eye, the kidney; it causes hypertension, foot diseases as well as other heart problems.

The workshop, which was tagged “Initiating, Implementing and Sustaining a National Diabetes Foot Care Policy,” witnessed experts who also canvassed for a national policy document on diabetes following the rise in cases of diabetes foot ulcer.

The Diabetes Association boss said,“nine per cent of the total diabetic patients in the country has foot ulcer due to poor management, unhygienic environment and ignorance.”

“Hence, there is need for government to subsidise diabetic drugs because they are expensive.”

“The disease goes beyond the hospitals, creating a need not only to educate health workers but patients as well,” Alkali added.

Also speaking at the event was Medical Director of Rainbow Specialist Medical Centre, Dr. Afokoghene Isiavwe, who noted that the major essence of the workshop was to empower health care workers in foot care practice as well as to create awareness about the state of diabetes foot ulcer and care in Africa.

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