Not knowing your blood sugar level could lead to death rather than knowing it, the Head of the National Diabetes Management and Research Centre, Dr Yacoba Atiase, has cautioned.
According to her, about 50 per cent of the population living with diabetes do not know they have the condition and that is a major threat to managing the disease burden in the country.
“Even if you don’t have diabetes, you must test regularly to know. For every adult, at least once every year you must test your blood glucose level.
When you know you are diabetic, you stand a better chance of managing and controlling it to live a long, healthy life without complications but if you decide not to know, it doesn’t take the disease away, it may affect you, give you complications and possibly, death,” she said.
Dr Atiase was speaking at the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Ministry of Health (MOH) and Sanofi, a multinational health company, to advance diabetes care in the country, in Accra on Friday.
The three-year agreement would afford healthcare authorities in Ghana the opportunity to purchase high-quality Sanofi analogue insulin products at an affordable price.
The partnership would also provide for the deployment of diabetes management solutions in four Ghanaian diabetes centres where at least 500 healthcare professionals would benefit from a targeted medical training programme.
Moreover, Sanofi will co-develop a digital solution to help physicians, nurses, pharmacists and community healthcare workers to better support more than 5,000 people living with diabetes in Ghana.
Dr Atiase who applauded the timeliness of the MoU to promoting diabetes care urged that education on the disease is increased and care decentralised to control the surge in cases across the country.
“Diabetes is behaving and looking like an epidemic and we must begin to treat it as such. The least we invest in it, the higher the mortality. We must handle diabetes like we did with COVID to get a lot of our population making healthier life choices,” she urged.
The Minister of Health, Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, in a remark noted that considering the poor health seeking behaviour of Ghanaians, the average 200,000 cases of diabetes reported in the country annually, could be higher.
He said, managing the diabetes epidemic required multi-sectoral action, hence the partnership with Sanofi was timely to improve access to quality care for patients and reduce the disease prevalence.
Mr Olivier Charmeil, the Executive Vice President, General Medicines, Sanofi, said his outfit’s ambition to deliver better care and improve the quality-of-life of those living with diabetes “knows no borders”.
“We see this as a shared responsibility with healthcare systems, and we are committed to fully playing our part,” he stated.
BY ABIGAIL ANNOH
