Tuesday 7th December 2021: The International Diabetes Foundation have released a recent report showing that one in 10 adults worldwide lived with diabetes in 2021.
These statistics amounted to over 567 million adults living with the disease and as seen in the 10th edition of the IDF Diabetes Atlas, this number was predicted to rise to 643 million by 2030 and 783 million by 2045.
The report discussed the continued global increase in diabetes prevalence, confirming diabetes as a significant global challenge to the health and well-being of individuals, families, and societies.
According to the report, 81 per cent of the affected adults (about four in five) lived in low and middle-income countries.
Diabetes led to 6.7 million deaths in 2021 i.e one diabetes-related death occurred every five seconds, the report noted.
A South African Professor in Diabetes, Ayesha Motala, who was part of the research team, stated that the prevalence of COVID-19 has placed an additional burden on diabetic patients.
In her statement, published in The Conversation on Monday, Motala said, “The urgency is even greater because COVID-19 has placed an additional burden on people living with diabetes, making them more susceptible to the worst complications.
“We are yet to see the impact of lockdowns, the use of masks, and the potential risk of COVID-induced diabetes on population health. There is a widely held concern that the pandemic may have caused a further rise in the prevalence of diabetes and its complications that will manifest over the coming years.”
Recall that the National Chairman, Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria,(ACPN), Pharm Adewale `Oladigbolu, FPSN had on the celebration of this year’s World Diabetics day lamented the healthcare situation, and diabetes care in our country .
He said “The healthcare situation, and indeed diabetes care in our country Nigeria is very low as the nation records more than most countries of the world with 5.8% (about 6Million) of adult Nigerians are said to be diabetic.
"This figure has been likened to the tip of the iceberg as it is estimated that two-third of the diabetes cases in Nigeria remain undiagnosed.
"Nearly 100 years after the discovery of insulin and other diabetes control medications, they remain largely unavailable and unaffordable for the majority of Nigerians.
"The complete confusion and disorderliness in the drug distribution system in Nigeria have worsened the quality of most valuable pharmaceutical products designed to alleviate the suffering of diabetic patients and have made it very difficult for these patients to get to treatment goals."
Pharm. Oladigbolu further noted the failed efforts by the government and it's health regulatory bodies to check the sales of medicines in the open market.
"Many of the antidiabetics are temperature sensitive and the lack of effort by the Federal Ministry of Health in ensuring that medicines are not sold in the open markets means many of these medications may have lost a substantial part of their potency before reaching the final users, this situation is dangerous, should not be and should not be allowed to continue.
 
"The situation of diabetes care in Nigeria is simply put sub-optimal: inequality and lack of access to diabetes care, high cost of medicines, lack of quality assurance checks for service providers in the healthcare system, and disorderly drug distribution system with its siamese twin of a pool of poor medicines."
He therefore called on the Minister for Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, to immediately order the closure of all Open Drug Markets in Nigeria, as failure to do so would be toying and endangering of the lives of ordinary Nigerians.