10th October, 2017
A Danish company, Novo Nordisk, on Tuesday inaugurated a Diabetes Campaign for low-income Nigerians to access routine screening, diagnosis and patient follow-up services in major cities.
The company’s Vice President for Africa and Gulf, Mr Mads Larsen, said at the campaign’s flag-off in Lagos that the free diabetes screening would help manage the disease among Nigerians.
Larsen said that the first phase of the campaign tagged, ‘Base of the Pyramid’ would last for six-month in 18 selected health facilities across Lagos State.
According to him, the campaign is aimed at screening about 82,500 people as well as conducting blood glucose tests for 40,000 high-risk Nigerians.
“Globally, those who live in cities are two to five times more likely to have diabetes.
“In Nigeria six out of 10 people living with diabetes do not know they have it and this can lead to huge healthcare complications.
“We know that one of the ways to improve diagnostic rates is by better integrating diabetes screening in routine general health services,’’ he said.
According to him, about 1.5 million people are currently living with diabetes, with only four out of 10 diagnosed, while about 20 per cent are receiving care.
The Danish Ambassador in Nigeria, Mr Torben Gettermann, said that Denmark’s “vibrant and active pharmaceutical industry’’ would continue to support Nigeria.
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Gettermann said that his home government would continue to encourage more Danish companies to collaborate with Nigerian private and public sectors.
“We would continue to open our doors to Nigeria in terms of promoting bilateral cooperation between our two countries.
“Nigeria is one of the important countries in the world that our government strongly believed in,” he said.
The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole said that the Federal Government was working at strengthening initiatives for combating Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) across the country.
Represented by Dr Adedamola Dada, Chief Medical Director, Federal Medical Centre, Ebute – Metta, Adewole said that Nigeria needed a multi-sectoral approach to combating diseases in the country.
Adewole said that his ministry was working on a framework for the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases in different communities.