gwen's blog

On a busy Monday morning, patients fill the tidy white-tiled halls of the Andijan Regional Endocrinological Dispensary, waiting for services. Clinicians in the diabetes eye and foot clinics are seeing patients, while down the hall, ’diabetes school’ is in session. In the gynaecological clinic, new standards for diagnosing gestational diabetes are taped to the desk, and anew GDM patient screening card recording the blood sugar levels of expectant mothers is quickly filling up.

 

West and Central African government officials, civil society representatives and healthcare experts met in Cameroon recently to address a growing threat to the region: diabetes and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

 

On April 23 - 25, 2018 in Kingston, Jamaica, the Healthy Caribbean Coalition (HCC), supported by the World Diabetes Foundation and Sagicor Life, hosted the Caribbean NCD Forum: Supporting national and regional advocacy in the Caribbean in the lead up to the 3rd UN High-Level Meeting on NCDs. 

 

Type 1 diabetes is a complex disease, no matter where you live. But in Kenya, poverty, stigmatisation, ignorance, myths and poor access to quality treatment often add to the difficulties people with the condition face.

 

In 2008, WDF, Kenya’s Diabetes Management and Information Centre and Kenya’s Ministry of Health set out to do something about it. They began by providing Hba1c testing, diagnostic equipment and insulin*, quarterly home visits and camps for 90 children. 

 

In Mozambique, an integrated approach to tackling non-communicable diseases is under way. It began with Integrated primary health care for diabetes and hypertension, WDF12-745, a programme launched in 2017 to strengthen diabetes and hypertension care at the primary level in three of the country’s 11 provinces: Maputo, Sofala and Cabo Delgado.

On Feb 20, the government of Bangladesh announced that Professor Azad Khan will receive the 2018 Independence Day Award for Social Service. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will present the award to Prof Khan and the year’s other award winners on 26 March. 

 

In Zanzibar, close family members often have a strong influence on the decisions people with diabetes make about their treatment – and how well they comply with that treatment. 

 

In response, the local health system should increase its focus on the role of family in diabetes patients’ care, acknowledging that patients are closely integrated in a larger social network in order to secure more effective treatment and better outcomes. 

 

In 1 in 7 pregnancies, the mother's blood sugar is periodically or consistently too high — and the vast majority of women and babies affected live in low-and middle-income countries.

 

To raise awareness about this serious – and preventable - threat to women and children, the World Diabetes Foundation and Women Deliver launched the Diabetes in Pregnancy Photo Contest on World Diabetes Day 2017. The deadline has been extended to 1 March, 2018.

 

On 3 December, WDF’s Board of Directors awarded its first partner award to Mrs Nilufar Ibragimova from the Charity Union of Disabled Persons and Diabetics (UMID) in Uzbekistan.