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About 97,000 people are currently living with diabetes in Cross River State, the Commissioner for Health. Inyang Asibong has confirmed.
Asibong, talking on Channels News at 10 Sunday, was worried about the nation’s health situation whereby the nation has the burden of coping with both communicable and non-communicable diseases.
“It’s really bad because we are talking of epidemiological transition in Nigeria, there are many developing countries who have more problems of non-communicable diseases but in Nigeria we are having the problem of communicable and non-communicable diseases so it is just a double barrel issue because as we are dealing with non-communicable disease, communicable ones are coming up,” she said.
Continuing, Asibong gave the figure of the reported cases of diabetic issues her state is currently dealing with.
“In Cross River State we are actually managing 97, 000 cases. These are the ones we know, many more diabetic cases are unknown.”
According to her, a lot of the diabetic cases could be managed without drugs. “Most of the cases could be managed without drugs and that is where diets come in. Hypertension and other lifestyle diseases are conditions we know things like regular exercise; thirty minutes a day and at least three times a week, taking less salt can be used to reduce cases of diabetes.”
On how much awareness there is on the condition and whether there are health schemes to manage these diseases, Asibong said, “Definitely a lot of awareness is going on in Federal and State levels. The Federal Ministry of Health is carrying out rapid response initiative screening, mass screening of diabetes. We are talking of screening of thousands throughout the country.
She also mentioned that her state has taken a step further in handling cases of diabetes. “Cross River is taking it a step further, the Governor, Senator Professor Ben Ayade is a very proactive person. When we talk of what the Federal Government is doing, there is a little they can do. We are going about all the Local Government Areas in doing the free diabetic screening.”
She also mentioned the recent passage of the Health Insurance Scheme in Cross River State. “The Cross River State Health Insurance Scheme was just signed into law by the Governor on the 6th of September. This would go a long way in addressing this issue, for the first time ever a scheme is signed into law just about a week of sending the bill and it is being launched in which we realised a lot of money,” she said, adding that, “The state Governor led by example actually donating to the scheme. Many other people donated though out the Local Government Areas right down to the grass roots where the people need it more.”
Enlightening about symptoms of diabetes, the Commissioner for Health said, “The commonest sign of diabetes is frequent urination during the day and at night. May be you don’t wake up at night to urinate before and now you do that more frequently or if there is increase in thirst, you find yourself drinking water often. You also find the person eats a lot and becomes tired easily.”
- Story by Dayo Emmanuel
