Develop a national diabetes control programme: The plea of an advocate
Develop a national diabetes control programme to enable more nurses’ venture into diabetes education.
That according to Madam Elizabeth Esi Asamoah Agyei, an advocate, would increase awareness on the effects of the disease, the complications caused by it and the care people with the condition needed.
Madam Asamoah Agyei, who lost her late husband, Mr Alfred Asamoah Agyei, to the ravaging ailment, intimated that, although diabetes was growing among the populace, there were limited number of specialised nurses to help manage the situation.
How Mrs Agyei lost her husband
My husband was an alcoholic who used every dime he received at month’s end to drink. I reported this behaviour to his family, sought counsel from religious men but to no avail. He finally decided to stop when he fell seriously sick and was diagnosed with piles.
This report changed him totally as he moved from being a cheerful person to being moody. This ailment restricted his movement and eventually he became a pale shadow of himself.
Mr Agyei would lie on his bed from morning to evening without sitting down because of the excruciating pain he felt anytime he sat down on his buttocks.
He was later advised to go for surgery and that was the beginning of his suffering until his demise because the sore never healed. The sore developed into anal cancer and he later died after 10 years of managing the situation. The postmortem revealed that he died of diabetes.
For her, getting more nurses to be specifically trained in diabetes education and management would help curb the disease adding that, providing incentives would encourage more nurses to venture into it.
Mrs Asamoah Agyei advised the public to check their diet, exercise and check their sugar level regularly.
She noted that, in Ghana, most of diabetes were only found during postmortem, because most of them were wrongly diagnosed as malaria, typhoid, among others.
She indicated that, the effect of diabetes on families was devastating and once a poor person was diagnosed, death was imminent.
She urged Ghanaians to be cautions of their eating habits and exercise regularly to prevent diabetes, which she described as dangerous.
The formation of diabetes
Diabetes is a chronic (long-lasting) health condition that affects how your body turns food into energy. Your body breaks down most of the food you eat into sugar (glucose) and releases it into your bloodstream. When your blood sugar goes up, it signals your pancreas to release insulin.
It is a disease in which the body’s ability to produce or respond to the hormone insulin is impaired, resulting in abnormal metabolism of carbohydrates and elevated levels of glucose in the blood.
Awareness
Mrs Asamoah Agyei said that her motivation for creating awareness about the disease stemmed from the fact that she and some family members upon regular visits to the hospital when her husband was alive led to the realisation that many people were oblivious of the disease, and lived without paying heed to its effect.
She said that there was the need for some level of awareness creation to enable people go to the hospitals for check-up.
“Though diabetes does not kill straight away, its complications could gradually lead to one’s death, and for that reason, those suffering from the disease should not allow it to take their lives,” she said.
To look healthy in spite of the disease, Mrs Asamoah advised diabetics to take their medications as prescribed by a medical doctor.
She said that there was the need for some level of awareness creation to enable people go to the hospitals for check-up.
“Though diabetes does not kill straight away, its complications could gradually lead to one’s death, and for that reason, those suffering from the disease should not allow it to take their lives,” she said.
BY BENEDICTA GYIMAAH FOLLEY
