Ivory Coast battling against Diabetes, over 1 million afflicted
More than a million people are said to be affected by the diabetes disease in the Ivory Coast.
Ivorian health authorities say more than 1,500 new cases of the disease are detected every year.
The statistics are considered alarming by the health authorities in the country, who have launched a neighborhood healthcare project to plant set up micro-hospitals.
Medical experts say symptoms of diabetes include unexplained weight loss, excessive thirst and frequent urination, headaches, blurred vision constant hunger and reduced mental focus.
As WADR’s Abidjan Correspondent diabetes is on the increase in the Ivory Coast.
The rate of diabetes cases is over 5.7%, one of the highest in West Africa, even though the real number of patients is not known due to the post election crisis. In 2030, the number of Ivorians suffering from this disease will be more than 430,000.
Poverty, bad food and bad lifestyle explains the evolution of the disease in the Ivory Coast.
Even though dialyses and insulin doses are available for the patients, the most affected people cannot get it.
So to relieve them and get the doctors closer to the patients, the Ivorian government has just launched 10 micro hospitals project throughout Ivory Coast.
This project, funded by the World Diabetes Foundation with two hundred thousand Euros, which is equivalent to 1 point 3 Billion CFA Francs will be completed within three years.
The project has three phases: training of the health staff, the creation of the diabetes micro hospitals, and the diabetes awareness and test campaign throughout the 10 regions of the Ivory Coast, where the micro hospitals will be built.
The Ivorian Health Minister has announced that his department wants to make this project a priority and decentralize health care.
Professor Ndri Therese Yoma said that this decentralization will allow the population to be treated closer to their homes. And according to her, within three year, the situation of diabetic patients in Ivory Coast will improve.
Such a project is a windfall for diabetes patients. But according to Professor Anzami Niamke, head surgeon of the Treichville hospital, it is important to inform diabetes patients to avoid stopping their treatment and to improve the knowledge of the health staff, in order to have a better care of the patients.
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