Dagi Kimani
9 November 2009
Nairobi — East Africans suffering from diabetes are at a three times higher risk of suffering from heart disease, stroke, kidney disease and heart failure than non-diabetics, according to the preliminary results of a study conducted by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF).
The study was done in Kenya and Tanzania, and in three other African countries of Cameroon, Mali, and South Africa.
It involved 4,600 people, half of whom had Type 2 diabetes. The other half did not have the disease.
In Kenya, the research was co-ordinated by Dr Eva Njenga, a leading endocrinologist, while in Tanzania the lead researcher was Dr Kaushik Ramaiya, an IDF vice-president.
The IDF is an umbrella organisation of over 200 diabetes associations operating in more than 160 countries, representing over 285 million people with diabetes, their families, and their healthcare providers.
According to the organisation, findings from the study show that people with diabetes in both Kenya and Tanzania as well as the rest of Africa have many more medical problems than people of comparable age and sex; are less able to function physically and work, and are more frequent and more intensive users of medical care.
Diabetics also have substantially higher out-of-pocket medical expenses, and more often than not lose income due to disabling diabetes-related complications such as amputations and blindness.
Consequently, the IDF says, diabetes is having major socio-economic effects on the families of those suffering from the disease, with those affected often having to stop working, many of them while still having young families.
Last year, in an indication of the growing economic burden of the disease, the international market consultancy Frost & Sullivan estimated that the market for diabetes medicines and diagnostic tests in Kenya will hit $26.8 million in the next four years, up from $18 million in 2006.
This will make Kenya -- which the country's Kenya Diabetes Management and Information Centre (DMIC) says has over three million diabetics in a population of 38 million -- the third biggest market in sub-Saharan Africa after South Africa and Nigeria.
In its findings, the IDF says that one out of six diabetics reported that they could not work at all because of their bad health, while one out of three said they could not work as much they wanted to.
Over three per cent said that they had to work more than they wanted to cover their medical expenses, and one out of five reported that their dietary requirements were not being met because money had to be diverted into buying medicines.
More than half, however, said they could not buy all the medicines they needed.
The economic effects of diabetes, the IDF study established, usually go beyond the affected person themselves.
According to the organisation, in 15 per cent of the cases, family members of a person suffering from diabetes reported that they had to quit work to care for their sick relative.
Nearly 20 per cent said they had to cut back on work to create more time to look after a diabetic, while 15 per cent of respondents said they had to work more to contribute to the cost of medicines and care for a family member with diabetes.
You might think that the best way to help children in Africa would be to ignore chronic illnesses like diabetes," said Dr Ramaiya who practises at Shree Hindu Mandal Hospital in Dar es Salaam. "But... when a father is fired because of a diabetes-related stroke, or a mother cannot raise crops and animals, or cook, because of blindness or an amputation, the entire family can find themselves homeless and pulled into dire poverty."
According to the IDF, 70 per cent of people with diabetes now live in low and middle-income countries like Kenya and Tanzania.
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