Unfortunately, we in Trinidad and Tobago are leading the Caribbean in the prevalence rate of diabetes, one of the most destructive of the non-communicable diseases. The World Health Organisation estimates that there are 350 million diabetics and if there is no intervention by 2030, that figure will double. At present, it is estimated that 277 million people in the developing world are afflicted with the disease, with the region having more than its proportionate share of that number; T&T is leading the pack in this one. But even more potentially devastating, the Ministry of Health estimates that 50 per cent of the population here is overweight. And as is now accepted, being overweight predisposes people to being afflicted with diabetes.
As the ministry and the United Nations made known on Monday, World Diabetes Day, having the disease means that an individual is more susceptible to heart attacks, cancers and strokes, amputations, blindness, kidney failure and a slew of very deadly non-communicable diseases. What the population of T&T must be told in a very direct manner is that in addition to the genetic factors which allow for the spread of diabetes from generation to generation, there are a few lifestyle factors which could bring on the disease. The lack of physical exercise and poor dietary habits are also contributors to someone contracting the disease. What these lifestyles indicate very clearly is that diabetes can be prevented, forestalled and attenuated with regard to the severity of the disease. The doctors and health experts always indicate that managing the disease is an achievable goal.
At the international level, the UN General Assembly made a political declaration in which governments around the world committed themselves to take decisive action to slow the spread of the disease. One decision in the declaration makes it a requirement for more people to be diagnosed for the disease and that they then have access, if found positive, to quality treatment. Having facilities with sufficient numbers of professional health providers is an obvious necessity for countries to pursue and get right. The political declaration of the General Assembly, like the decision on HIV and Aids, requires that pharmaceutical companies, the huge multinational corporations which sell trillions of dollars in such products to people with the ability to pay, make the medications available at very low prices to poor countries.
In the instance of HIV and Aids, a number of such companies have committed to selling the medicines for five per cent of the cost to governments who then make it available to the poor. We know that the previous government through the CDAP programme made a serious positive impact with regard to the treatment of diabetes by making available insulin, testing machines and test strips, all very expensive medications and devices, to large numbers of chronic diabetics.
Small countries cannot afford the health costs of treating such large numbers of people; employers and insurance companies cannot afford the downtime involved in people contracting the diseases and being laid up for any length of time. Those with a disposition to diabetes or who have already been diagnosed with the disease need to make the necessary lifestyle changes required to counter the onset or improve the management of diabetes.
The Minister of Health was recently saying without apology that the fast foods diet that so many people seem to be stuck on must change. But those in the sale of food, cooked and uncooked, also need to wean people on to healthy eating choices. Such a pursuit does not necessarily mean lower turnovers and profits for the company. Surely in the long run, the food sellers would have longer-lasting customers through the sale of quality foods.
