Bhutan in need of knowledge

In the small mountainous country of Bhutan diabetes hasn’t reached epidemic proportions - yet.

An estimated 10,000 - 20,000 people with diabetes in Bhutan need immediate diabetes care. The number is low compared with a total population of 700,000. However the Royal government of Bhutan has chosen to take a proactive stance towards the threatening growth of diabetes in Asia, and the World Diabetes Foundation is supporting their efforts.

The people of Bhutan are in fact experiencing changes in lifestyle and diet, the common cause of increasing numbers of people with diabetes in other parts of Asia, but the impact is not yet detected. This knowledge allows for diabetes to be addressed before it becomes a major public health problem.

Free health care but lack of knowledge

In Bhutan all health services are free, treatment as well as medicine are provided by the government. The project funded by World Diabetes Foundation concentrates on strengthening knowledge of diabetes among health care staff and improving access to proper diabetes care in Bhutan.

“In that view the project in Bhutan is ideal,” says a satisfied programme manager Sanne Frost Helt, recently back from her first monitoring visit to Bhutan. “This is how all projects should be, but unfortunately this is the only country with which we collaborate, where people with diabetes do not have to worry about how to afford medicine and other devices for treating and managing their diabetes.”

The Bhutanese King has made it a priority to ensure that all health and social services are free; this has been the situation for decades. During the recent 15 years Danish assistance to the health sector has helped Bhutan maintain this level of service.

However the country, inhabited by 700,000 people, needs to educate the health care personnel at both hospital and rural clinics in symptoms, risk factors and management of diabetes to ensure early diagnosis. 

 “Today no doctor in Bhutan is specialised in diabetes care,” informs WDF Board member Ida Nicolaisen, who has followed the strenghtening of the health sector closely over the past eight years as member of the DANIDA Board.

Ida Nicolaisen also visited the partners in Bhutan and, like Sanne Frost Helt, she felt a lot of enthusiasm and commitment towards the project at all levels; “Every one we spoke to within the Ministry of Health as well as in the hospital in Thimpu took ownership of the project and its aim.”

Covering every part of Bhutan

The project is still in its early stages. Two specialised health clinics are established at two main hospitals. Soon a baseline survey, aiming at determining diabetes and risk factor prevalence, will be conducted. This will provide policy makers with relevant data to guide policy and action in the area of diabetes.

A second stage is to train district level and rural health personnel.

Spreading knowledge to every corner of the country will hopefully lead to early detection and prevention of diabetes and its complications.

By 2007, 100 doctors, 250 health assistants and 150 nurses will have been trained in diabetes care. The well renowned BIRDEM institute in Bangladesh acts as tutor institute providing specific expertise to Bhutan.

At the end of the project all health care workers in Bhutan are expected to be knowledgeable of diabetes prevention and treatment.

Read more about the project: Diabetes health care services in Bhutan