Ahead of World Diabetes Day…
GUYANA will join the international community to mark World Diabetes Day on November 14 but a programme leading up to it started yesterday.
The Health Ministry hosted a workshop to focus on chronic diseases, particularly diabetes, for occupational health and safety officers in both the public and private sectors.
Delivering the feature address at the opening, in Regency Suites hotel, Hadfield Street, Stabroek, Georgetown, Minister of Health, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy warned that, unless something is done about chronic non-communicable diseases, there will be more premature deaths and disabilities.
He said the fastest growing cause of disabilities in this country is chronic non-communicable diseases.
Noting that diabetes is one of several such, Ramsammy said it is not a minor problem, as it contributes to a higher risk of premature death and other health complications, including heart diseases and kidney problems.
He said addressing chronic non-communicable disease will see improvements in the livelihoods of all people.
“This is a major challenge in health,” Ramsammy admitted.
Importantly, too, he said Guyana’s development will be affected, expressly in the area of poverty alleviation, because resources meant for it will be redirected to keeping alive people who are suffering from chronic non-communicable diseases.
Ramsammy disclosed that, currently, close to $800M are spent on medicines in the public sector and, still, there are times of shortages.
“If we are to satisfy, totally, the need, we need more than $1 billion and this is just for chronic non-communicable diseases,” he indicated.
Ramsammy said one particular medicine, which will help to reduce certain risks of health complications, costs $75M for 1,000 persons.

COMBINATION

He said a combination of diabetes and hypertension would require 15 different medicines.
“Right now, we spend about 25 to 30 per cent of our health budget on those commodities. If the prevalence of chronic non-communicable diseases increase, we will need to spend most of the health budget on them,” the Minister posited.
He said the trend has to change or there will be little resources left in the health sector budget for human resources and physical infrastructure works, among other areas.
Ramsammy said, chronic non-communicable diseases are essentially lifestyle diseases, as they correlate with changing lifestyles.
He said Guyanese need to make changes and focus on healthy living and they can do it by eating healthy, controlling portions, checking health and being happy and active.
Ramsammy said, in Guyana, 15 per cent of schoolchildren are overweight, as are a staggering 55 per cent of the adult population.
He said the workshop is one way of making the general public, through the occupational health and safety officers, more aware and educated when it comes to healthy living.
Ramsammy advised that reducing the risks of chronic non-communicable diseases will reduce the increasing financial demands and impact positively on national development.
“We can’t prevent it, but we can take control,” he maintained.
Ramsammy observed that Guyana has been very vocal on the international stage in emphasising that not enough resources are allocated to fighting chronic non-communicable diseases.
He said Guyana has also advanced the call for the Millennium Development Goals Plus (MDGs Plus), to have chronic non-communicable diseases included in the MDGs.
Ramsammy reported that those efforts have yielded some success and said, in September next year, there will be a Global Summit at the United Nations to address the issue of chronic non-communicable diseases.
He said chronic non-communicable diseases are raving the world, not only locally, with two of three deaths occurring in persons younger than 70 years resulting from them.

COSTS

Ramsammy informed that those diseases, today, account for about 60 per cent of morbidity and mortality in the Caribbean, causing major suffering and costs for individuals, families, governments and businesses.
Chronic diseases have a disproportionate impact on the poor, further exacerbating health inequities, he related.
He said chronic non-communicable diseases are responsible for 70 per cent of deaths worldwide and 60 per cent in Guyana.
Of the 60 per cent, diabetes victims make up 10 per cent and, presently, there are between 30,000 and 40,000 people living with diabetes.
Making the distinction between the types of diabetes, Ramsammy said type two is more common in adults and type one causes children who suffer from it to need daily doses of insulin.
World Diabetes Day raises global awareness to the sickness, its escalating rate worldwide and how to prevent it in most cases.
World Health Organisation (WHO) said the observance was begun in partnership with the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) on November 14, to mark the birthday of Frederick Banting, who, along with Charles Best, was instrumental in the 1922 discovery of insulin, a life-saving medicine for diabetes patients.
WHO estimates that some 220 million people globally are diabetic and forecasts that the number is likely to more than double, by 2030, without intervention.
The agency also said 80 per cent of related deaths occur in low and middle income countries.