Nigeria Loses N92b To Diabetes Yearly –Prof Fasanmade
The President of the Endocrine and Metabolism Society of Nigeria, Prof. Olufemi Fasamade weekend raised the alarm over the increase of diabetes among Nigerians on daily basis, disclosing that “Nigeria lose N92 billion yearly to the scourge of diabetes.”
The University Don who spoke at the product launch/symposium on diabetes by Novo Nordisk Nigeria puts the prevalent rate of the disease at 5 million and that more than half of the numbers are not diagnosed.
“Some are not diagnosed because the type 2 diabetes may not have any symptom and so, the need for people to continuously taste their blood sugar.
Fasamade who is also a consultant physician, Endocriminologists at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, said: “A patient who has complication may be indebted to the tune of N500, 000 – N1millon.
“Diabetes kills more people than the trio of tuberculosis, HIV and malaria. From my experience with patients that have ailments like stroke, heart attack, blindness, kidney problem, and limb amputation, they all have links to diabetes,” he stated.
Giving a breakdown of the new drug, Professor Surendra Sharma of the Mahatma Ganhdi Institute of Medical Science, Jairpur, India, said Insulin degludec has an ultra-long duration of action lasting beyond 42 hours, which allows for flexibility in day-to-day dosing time. 1Insulin degludec provides a lower risk of overall, severe and nocturnal hypoglycemia and comparable reductions of blood glucose levels.1-4.
He said, just like India, Nigerians are eating a lot of unhealthy food that are increasing their sugar level and it’s important that everyone cultivate the habit of eating good food.
On his part, the Division of Endocrinology & Diabetology, Medical University of Graz, Austria, Prof. Thomas Pieber said patients that have hypoglycemia are at the risk of death and so, the introduction of Insulin Degludec which reduces the risk of casualty.
“In the cardiovascular outcomes trial, DEVOTE, insulin degludec did not increase the risk of major cardiovascular events; while significantly reduced the rates of nocturnal severe and severe hypoglycaemia by 53% and 40%, respectively compared with insulin glargine U100, in adults with type 2 diabetes.”
Also, the Corporate Vice president, Business Area Africa & Gulf Novo Nordisk, Mads Bo Larsen, said: ‘In Africa, under the Changing Diabetes initiatives we run several projects such as the Changing Diabetes in Children (CDiC) & the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) project’’.
The BoP project which is currently running in Nigeria is planned to reach 400,000 patients. We are firmly committed to working towards alleviating the burden of diabetes and supporting people with diabetes live a healthy life. ’Novo Nordisk provides half of the world’s insulin.
