Diabetes: 4% of prevalence in only one day of screening

As part of the celebration of the World Diabetes Day, Amadia or Malagasy Association against Diabetes organizes, during three days in a row, free screening sessions in the capital Antananarivo. As for Tuesday, November 13, 119 individuals stopped by the Amadia Clinic at Faravohitra for a blood sugar test, 4% of whom are reported to be at high risk of getting diabetes.

While in 2010, the World Health Organization reported a prevalence rate of 4%, the Amadia Center reported that currently the prevalence rate has gone up to 6%. Another figure that perfectly illustrates such an increase is that while in 2010, the 11 Amadia Center around Madagascar counted 19 500 diabetes patients, that figure went up to 20 700 last year and arrived at 22 000 this year.

According to the Manager of the Amadia’s operations, Dr. Haja Ramamonjisoa, the majority of the local population is not aware of or they neglect on purpose the primary prevention actions to stay safe from diabetes. These include well-balanced diet, physical exercises and early diabetes screening. For that reason, it is no wonder that there is strong diabetes prevalence in Madagascar than in any other countries. He concluded that diabetes is the first cause of amputation in Madagascar.