The theme for World Diabetes Day 2018-2019: “The Family and Diabetes,” seeks to raise awareness of a condition that millions of people all around the world live with every day. Mrs. Elizabeth Esi Denyoh, President of the Association told the Ghana News Agency in an interview that the exercise should have been conducted nationwide but due to funding challenges, three regions have been selected for this year.

She stated that 624 people have been screened out of that, 15 tested positive and they have been counselled and referred to their nearest health facilities, adding, “We will follow up on them”.

She stressed that a quarter of Ghana’s population was expected to be diabetic by the year 2020 and that, “Out of every four people on the street, you have a probability of one being diabetic and not knowing”.

The National Diabetes Association is an organ under the Ministry of Health and a member of International Diabetes Federation (IDF) whose duty it was to advocate, educate and regulate everything concerning diabetes.

According to the International Diabetes Federation, the number of people with diabetes is expected to rise to 522 million by 2030 and three out of four people with diabetes live in low and middle income countries.

World Diabetes Day (WDD) is celebrated annually on November 14. It was created in 1991 by IDF and the World Health Organisation (WHO) in response to growing concerns about the escalating health threat posed by diabetes.

Essentially, diabetes is about the body’s ability (or lack of it) to produce the required amount of a hormone called insulin to control glucose levels in the blood. There are broadly two types of diabetes. The Type one requires daily administration of artificial insulin by means of injection or insulin pump. Type two is more generally managed by a combination of dietary control and medication in the form of tablets.