A Professor of Endocrinology at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Professor Olufemi Fasanmade, has said that diabetes kills more people than tuberculosis, malaria and HIV put together.
He made this disclosure while speaking exclusively to The Next Edition.
According to him, “diabetes is a leading cause of death in almost all groups of people from middle age and above. It is not the commonest cause of death but many people don’t realise that more people die from diabetes than tuberculosis, malaria and HIV combined together.
“The number of people who die from diabetes on a yearly basis worldwide exceed five million. There is no condition that yields that amount of death among all the other diseases.”
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Professor Fasanmade also disclosed that about five million people are living with diabetes in Nigeria adding that diabetes was the commonest cause of amputation of the lower extremities, kidney failure, stroke and blindness.
Pointing out that it has no known cause or cure, the professor said the disease could however be managed with a combination of appropriate diet, exercise and medication.
Speaking on the theme of this year’s World Diabetes Day, “Women and Diabetes, our right to a healthy future,” he noted that women played a very major role in the control of diabetes, hence the focus on them this year.
November 14 of every year is set aside to beam attention of the world on diabetes.
