13 Nov 2017

Botswana will on November 14  join the rest of the world to commemorate the World Diabetes Day, which is commemorated annually.

A medical officer from Princess Marina Hospital, Dr Aderonke Oyewo based at Block 6 Clinic, said the theme for this year’s commemoration was “Women and Diabetes- our right to a healthy future.” The theme  focused on women after it was realised that currently over 199 million women were living with diabetes worldwide.

She said the campaign would promote the importance of affordable and equitable access for all women at risk for or living with diabetes to the essential diabetes medicines and technologies, self-management education and information they required to achieve optimal diabetes outcomes and strengthen their capacity to prevent type 2 diabetes.

Dr Oyewo said according to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) two out of every five women with diabetes are of reproductive age, accounting to over 60 million worldwide adding that diabetes was the ninth leading cause of death in women globally, causing 2.1 million death per year.

 She said this year’s theme was in line with the many challenges faced by women and said the awareness would help pregnant women require improved access to screening, care and education to achieve positive health outcomes for mother and child.

Further,  Dr Oyewo said one in seven births was affected by gestational diabetes and  IDF estimated that 20.9 million or 16.2 per cent of live births to women in 2015 had some form of hyperglycaemi in pregnancy which is approximately half of the women with a history of GDM go on to develop type 2 diabetes within five to ten years after delivery.

She said the vast majority of cases of hyperglycaemia in pregnancy were in low and middle income countries, where access to maternal was often limited.

The doctor said in order to prevent  type 2 diabetes, focus should be on maternal health and nutrition and other health behaviours before and during pregnancy, as well as infant and early childhood nutrition.

She said women and girls were key agents in the adoption of healthy lifestyles to improve the health and wellbeing of future generations as figure show that 70 per cent of cases of type 2 diabetes could be prevented through the adoption of a healthy lifestyle. “Seventy per cent of premature deaths among adults were largely due to behavior initiated during adolescence, and women as mothers have a huge influence over the long term-term health status of their children,” said Dr Oyewo.  Ends