Civil society organisations are intensifying calls for President Cyril Ramaphosa to declare diabetes a public health emergency, citing the need for urgent government intervention and resources to prevent the growing number of deaths caused by the disease, writes Marcia Moyana for Health-e News.
At the Diabetes Summit in Gauteng last week, nearly 350 stakeholders – academics, civil society organisations, industry representatives, and government officials – demanded immediate action on what they describe as a spiralling health crisis.
According to summit convenor and Diabetes Alliance chair Dr Patrick Ngassa Piotie, the disease, a leading cause of death in the country, adds a heavy burden to the already stretched public health system.
“The Department of Health has very few people able to dedicate their working time to diabetes, and an emergency declaration would mobilise dedicated human and financial resources while putting society on notice that business as usual is no longer acceptable,” he said.
The toll keeps rising
It’s estimated that between 4.2m and 4.6m South Africans have diabetes, and the numbers are expected to rise if there is no intervention.
Pholo Ramothwala, founder of Live Life Beyond, a forum supporting people with chronic conditions, went from taking two tablets a day to eight when he was also diagnosed with type 2 diabetes about three years ago.
Ramothwala, who has had HIV for 26 years, has developed high cholesterol and hypertension because of long-term medication use.
He said his doctor cautioned that one of the side effects of taking both HIV and diabetes medication would be a spike in his cholesterol levels – a reality he now lives with.
“It is one of the most confusing things. The idea is that once you take medication, you get better. But technically, you get better from one side, and you develop something else,” he said.
Piotie said this had become a common phenomenon for long-term HIV survivors.
The country’s large population of people who survived the HIV crisis in the 2000s are now in their 40s, 50s and 60s and are developing diabetes.
“One of the HIV treatments, unfortunately, has a side effect that can create diabetes in an individual down the line. We also know that even if you are not HIV+, the more you age, the more your risk of diabetes increases,” Piotie added.
Push for stronger nutrition policy
Nzama Mbalati, CEO of the Healthy Living Alliance (HEALA), said prevention of the rising diabetes and other NCD-related deaths through nutrition had become more urgent than before.
“HEALA has been talking about the cost of inaction for years, and in 10-15 years’, if nothing is done, there will be a bigger problem in NCDs. There is a greater need to look at how to support people to eat healthy, driving nutrition literacy and building networks and ecosystems.”.
Grassroots mobilisation
The Diabetes Alliance intends to adopt a grassroots approach to diabetes management, modelling it after the successful Treatment Action Campaign (TAC)
Piotie said that grassroots movements – where people are empowered at community level to care for themselves, providing education, peer support, tools and skills to live healthy and long with diabetes – are urgently needed.
Mbalati said HEALA would be implementing groundwork in Limpopo, Eastern Cape, Gauteng, KZN, and Western Cape, piloting mobilisation, treatment literacy, nutrition literacy, and building a large-scale education campaign and social mobilisation.
“We will continue advocating for front-of-pack labelling, the health promotion levy, marketing restrictions to children, and ensuring the National School Nutrition Programme provides nutritious food,” he added.
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