Health Minister Prof Isaac Adewole and others have sounded the alarm loudly enough. Late last year, the minister said Nigeria accounted for a quarter of 15 million diabetes prevalence cases in Africa. Some have said nearly two million Nigerians living with the disease, according to a conservative figure, are unable to produce insulin, or that the insulin they produce cannot properly regulate their blood sugar. This condition exposes them to all manner of grim realities, including heart diseases, blindness, amputations and death.
That was why health experts across the globe converged on Enugu to seek ways of combating the disease.
The experts were drawn from China, Belgium, Congo, Cameroon and Nigeria.
Declaring the summit open at the International Conference Centre of the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Ituku-Ozalla, Enugu State, the Provost, College of Medicine of the University of Nigeria Nsukka, Prof. Ernest Onwasigwe, said the institution prioritises research and manpower development as a means of achieving academic excellence.
Onwasigwe explained that in order to boost learning and encourage research among academic staff, the university introduced inaugural lecture series, adding that the lecture provides the platform for their academic staff who had attained the status of professor to periodically educate the university community on their different fields.
He said, “In the College of Medicine here, I can proudly say that we have medical doctors who are gifted with such amazing intellectual quotient like Prof. Ifeoma Ulasi, the leader of this research group. The world also recalls that our team of surgeons pioneered open heart surgery in Africa in 1976 and the first separation of Siamese twins several years back”.
He said that the workshop on diabetes could not have come at a better time than now when the disease is ravaging the world. He expressed the hope that at the completion of the research study, Nigeria and the entire world would reap abundantly from the findings of the Prof. Ifeoma Ulasi-led team on diabetes.
The provost also commended the contribution of the chairman of the UNTH Open Heart Centre, Prof. Basden Onwubere, who was known for supporting good vision.
Prof. Xilin Yang of the Tianjin Medical University, China, called on African leaders to increase budgetary allocations to the health sector, stressing that with an improved healthcare programme for the people, the scourge of diabetes can be better controlled.
Yang challenged stakeholders in healthcare to join hands and fight diabetes. He praised Prof. Ifeoma Ulasi for organising the workshop with help from the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), Belgium.
Also speaking on the occasion, the senior programmes manager at the International Diabetes Federation, Belgium, Dr. Belma Malanda, disclosed that of the 425 million people down with diabetes globally, 200 million are women.
In his lecture titled “Bringing Research in Diabetes to Global Environment”, Dr. Malanda, lamented that the huge patients’ figure on diabetes calls for great concern by both the government and stakeholders in the healthcare. He stated that as part of efforts to address the issues of diabetes, the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) now has 231 member associations in 165 countries of the world, including seven Regional offices adding that the population of its members had hit 2 million.
The coordinator of the state’s Research Team on Diabetes and organizer of the summit , Prof. Ifeoma Ulasi, had explained that the objective of the group was to wipe out diabetes in Nigeria and the entire Africa.
The renowned scholar said that by the formation of the Diabetes Association of Nigeria (DAN) since 1982, Nigerian doctors had demonstrated their readiness to combat the scourge of diabetes in the country to zero level.
Describing diabetes as a global epidemic, Prof. Ulasi, who is of the College of Medicine, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, called on the government to subsidise the treatment of patients with diabetes, especially the poor among them due to the harsh economy.
The chairman of the University of Nigeria teaching Hospital (UNTH) Open Heart Centre of Excellence, Prof. Basden Onwubere stated that the University of Nigeria would continue to support research efforts as a sure way of improving the academic horizon of its staff and commended Prof. Ifeoma Ulasi for embarking on the research on Diabetes, even as he noted that everyone stands to gain at the end of the study.
The Research team, led by the coordinator, Prof. Ifeoma Ulasi, had paid courtesy visits to the Enugu State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Sintan Ekochin, the Chief Medical Director, UNTH, Dr. Chris Amah and the Provost, College of Medicine, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Prof. Ernest Onwasigwe. Members of the state’s research team were drawn from University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital and Enugu State, university of Science and Technology(ESUT) Teaching Hospital, Parklane, Enugu.