HEALTH: Diabetes now affecting more people of working age in EA.Drive Hot News

Getting checked for diabetes. More younger people are now suffering from the lifestyle disease.  PHOTO | FILE.

Nairobi. East Africa is facing a health time bomb with diabetes having an increasing impact on people of working age, signalling a threat to the region’s economic development.

According to the 2013 Global Diabetes Scorecard, more than three quarters of the diabetes-related deaths that occurred in the region last year — that is more than 80,000 — were of adults aged between 20 and 60 years.

The scorecard notes that East African governments need to strengthen their existing health systems to improve health for people living with diabetes in order to prevent the projected almost twofold increase in the prevalence of the disease over the next two decades.

“Although the East African countries are beginning to make progress in responding to diabetes, they need to take a stronger strategic approach to diabetes,” notes the scorecard by the International Diabetes Federation.

Building on the United Nations Summit of 2011, global leaders have now signed up to an historic commitment to reduce premature deaths from diabetes and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs) by 25 per cent by 2025.

They have also agreed on a Global Action Plan designed to achieve a range of measurable targets on diabetes and NCDs, including halting the rise in diabetes and obesity as well as promises of action on prevention and care.

According to the report,  Kenya is taking some significant action across all areas of diabetes prevention including the quality of self-management education, efforts to raise awareness and the national diabetes programme, with services being devolved to bring them closer to people.

“However, the low level of diabetes-related health expenditures in Kenya has prevented a very small proportion (0.3 per cent) of diabetes-related deaths,” said the report.

Kenya has a fully implemented inter-ministry diabetes plan. An NCD plan exists but has not been implemented. A range of policies on nutrition exist: Those for saturated and trans fats have been fully implemented but those on the production of and access to healthy food, only partially.

Also, only 50 per cent of health costs are covered via cost-sharing in public hospitals and there is limited availability of self-management education.

Tanzania on the other hand is making some progress, especially on monitoring and surveillance