Reported by, Nsor Paul Mensah.
The president of National Diabetes Association Mrs. Elizabeth Esi Denyoh, has appealed to government to come into their aid and support the association. "We have fund for COVID but there is no guidelines for diabetes management in Ghana. We don't have any plans so we are appealing to government to assist the association," she said.
The chairperson said diabetes care needs attention because in Ghana it is a bit neglected and is killing more people, saying between 2020 and now, diabetes has killed more than those that Covid killed.
The Chairperson of the International Diabetes Federation of West Africa and President of the National Diabetes Association of Ghana, Mrs Elizabeth Esi Denyoh noted that one-tenth of the population representing over three million Ghanaians are living with diabetes.
According to the President, what makes it serious is the fact that most of the people that have the disease don’t know their status.
Mrs Denyoh made these revelations in Accra yesterday, November 10, 2022, during the launch of this year’s World Diabetes Day held at the Tema Station.
Adding that most Ghanaians living with diabetes don’t know their status, “we are using this day to encourage people to get tested, know their status, eat right and if they’ve been ever diagnosed with diabetes, take their medication regularly. Check your sugar levels regularly, go to your follow-up appointments and you are going to be fine,” she stated.
In an interview about the activities of the day, Mrs Denyoh said the day has been observed throughout major markets centre across the country where screening for diabetes would be done.
“A similar programme is going on in all major markets in the country. Furthermore, we are sending messages to the government to pay more attention adding that diabetes is now like a tsunami, where a lot of people are dying from the disease.
The chairperson continued that diabetes care needs attention because in Ghana it is a bit neglected and is killing more people.
She revealed that between 2020 and now, “diabetes has killed more than those that Covid killed but now we have the fund for Covid, there are no guidelines for diabetes management in Ghana and we don’t have any plan so we are appealing to the government to assist the association.”
Speaking on the theme ‘Education to Protect the Future,’ If we are going to protect the future, then we have to protect our youth because statistics have shown that the disease is affected more children than adults.
She called on all Ghanaians to teach their children to eat right, adopt the right exercise habit, also increase exercise in schools and must go back to our previous lifestyle, where we used to play Ampe.
Mrs Denyoh appealed to the Ghana Education Service, and Ministry of Education, if they can increase exercise time for children may be from once a week to three times a week.
“I think if two, three times a week, children exercise 20 minutes, before going to class will not be bad for the nation because we have to protect them, they are our future,” she stated.
“Even though we are encouraging Ghanaians to do a lot of exercises there are no bicycle lanes in the country, even pedestrians struggle to walk, and we are busily building major roads and major interchanges without recourse to these things that allow citizens to embark on exercise.”
We are appealing to the government so that in future constructions, they should include bicycle lanes which will encourage people to cycle and walk more,” she stated.
On the major common causes of diabetes, Mrs Denyoh said there is no specific cause of diabetes in Ghana, but it is believed that poor eating habits, lack of exercise and can be genetic.