Nigeria is said to have the highest incidence of diabetes in Sub-Saharan Africa, with about five million people currently living with the condition, and about 50 percent of the cases still undetected.
This was disclosed by the Medical Director, Sanofi Nigeria-Ghana, Dr. Philip Ikeme, during a pre-press briefing ahead of diabetes summit coming up on October 18 in Lagos.
Ikeme said the disease is a global epidemic, which is why people need to go for regular check up. “There’s a huge problem about the growing burden of diabetes and there is a push for us to pay more attention to it. Type 2 diabetes, which tends to affect older people, constitutes 95 per cent of all diabetes, while type 1 constitutes about five percent. Currently, we have a global burden of 387 million,”
According to him, the disease produces such other chronic ailments as stroke, blindness and cardiovascular disease. The General Manager and Country Chairman, Sanofi Nigeria-Ghana, Folake Odediran, said the aim is to provide an educational platform for diabetes care.”
