A study by the Ministry of Health has revealed that one million Ugandans, of which 100,000 are children, are currently suffering from diabetes.
The revelation came as Uganda joined the rest of the world to mark the World Health Day, which is celebrated every April 7.
This years’ world health Day was marked under the theme “Beat diabetes” dedicated to raising awareness of diabetes, scale up diabetes prevention, strengthen care, and enhance surveillance.
However, the most outrageous revelation about the statistics from the non-communicable disease (NCD) study conducted by the ministry in 2014 is that 80 per cent of the patients do not know they have diabetes.
Dr Elioda Tumwesigye, the Health minister, while reading out the figures at a press conference at the ministry headquarters yesterday, said government has set a target to halt the prevalence by 30 per cent in the next 15 years by 2030.
“As a ministry, we are embarking on increasing public awareness about diabetes, but most especially the global shared factors that intensify diabetes, which include: tobacco and alcohol use, physical inactivity and other risky life style behaviour like poor feeding,” he said.
Dr Tumwesigye added that to achieve the target, government has set out a plan to give Shs30m to every health centre IV, and enhance community health activities.
“Thirty per cent of the money shall be used for diabetes screening and 20 per cent of the money shall be used for training village health committees to sensitise people on NCDs.”
Dr Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO regional director for Africa, said the number of people living with diabetes has risen globally from 180 million in 1980 to 422 million in 2014 and from four million to 25 million in Africa within the same period.
“The sharp rise is as a result of rapid uncontrolled urbanisation, globalisation and major changes in life style with a resultant increase in the prevalence of life style risk factors,” he said in a speech read by Mr Benjamin Sensasi, the Health promotion officer, WHO- Uganda.
Dr Gerald Mutungi, the head of non-communicable diseases at the ministry of health, said 90 per cent of the diabetes cases fall under type 2 of diabetes, which is caused due to bad feeding habits, and inactivity.
The World Health Day celebrations are expected to be held in Mityana, at a date the minister said shall be communicating to the public.
The Monitor
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