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Two valuable documents; “Diabetes Clinical Practice Guidelines” and “Diabetes Education Training Manual”, will enable doctors and health care workers to offer up to date diabetes care to people with diabetes in the African countries.
WDF has supported the development of the material which is now made available on the WDF website.
The diabetes education training manual can be used for training health care personnel in providing appropriate diabetes education to people with diabetes and their relatives. The diabetes clinical practice guidelines are standard guidelines which can be used by doctors and relevant health care personnel, when treating people with diabetes.
Together, these documents are expected to provide improved management for people living with diabetes in Africa.
“Most African countries do not have up-to-date, standard guidelines for treatment of diabetes and education of people with diabetes. They also lack the resources to create it”, says Sanne Frost Helt, Programme manager, WDF: “At the same time western guidelines and manuals hold information irrelevant in an African setting; therefore these publications address a much needed area of improvement in the care of people with diabetes in Africa”.
Addressing regional misconceptions
What are the minimum staff and equipment requirements to set up a diabetes clinic? And what should you look for, when examining a person at risk of having diabetes? Questions like these are answered in the Diabetes Practice Guidelines, whereas the Education Manual is used by health care personnel when learning how to educate patients.
As part of the manual, a list of common misconceptions describes specific African problems when educating people about diabetes.
In several African countries it is believed that a too high sugar intake causes diabetes in the first place, and when you have diabetes you can lower your glucose levels by eating honey, bitter plants or bile from sheep and cows, or by putting salt in your Coke or drink specific beer brands.
Witchcraft, curses and spirits of ancestors are commonly believed to be the cause of diabetes. A common misbelief in Tanzania, Swaziland and South Africa is that diabetes is infectious and can be sexually transmitted.
Taking the context in which the patient lives, such as economic status and religion into consideration helps the educators to recognise pitfalls and opportunities to set realistic goals when educating patients.
In 2003 the International Diabetes Federation, (IDF) Africa Region during its Regional Council Meeting established a Task Force for Diabetes Clinical Practice Guidelines and one for Diabetes Education Training Manual. The members of the Task Forces represented varied spectrum of IDF African Region with regard to religion, language, culture and beliefs.
Dr. Kaushik Ramaiya, WDF board member was part of the six member task force; “The main objective of these documents is to provide the front-line health care provider be it a doctor, clinical officer or a nurse in any setting of the health care system – primary, secondary or tertiary with knowledge to diagnose and manage diabetes and its complications”.
The time interval in getting the process completed was much beyond the expected one year completion target. Dr. Kaushik sees the delay as a result of the thorough process the documents have gone through: After the first drafts were ready, the documents were circulated to all the member associations in the Region for their comments and critique. After incorporating their comments, the documents were sent to three external reviewers for their critique. The documents were then finalised after a comprehensive review process.
Countries in the African region are at liberty to adapt the documents. If they desire, they are welcome to suit the manuals to their environment and circumstance.
The documents will be available in English, French and Portuguese.
Read more about the project "Diabetes Education Training Manual"
Read more about the project "Diabetes Practice Guidelines"
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