Diabetes cases up despite programs, health official says

DESPITE the health awareness campaigns and advocacies, government health agencies still see an increase in diabetes cases in Cebu province.

For the year 2011 to 2012, the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7) recorded 256 cases of diabetes in the province.

Dr. Juditha Tawatao, DOH-7 local health support division chief, said that she didn’t know how much the increase was.

However, Tawatao said diabetes was among the top 7 major causes of death in Central Visayas.

“Diabetes is a lifestyle related disease, including heart diseases, cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD),” Dr. Tawatao said.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs when the the pancreas does not produce enough insulin, or when the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces.

The WHO said that uncontrolled diabetes could lead to hyperglycemia or raised blood sugar which in time could lead to serious damage to many of the body’s systems especially the nerves and blood vessels.

DIABETES RISKS

Tawatao said smoking, unhealthy diet, and lack of exercise would trigger the disease or make it worse.

Despite the increase, Tawatao said the DOH-7 would continue its program it started in 2003 on the promotion of a healthy lifestyle in the region and the yearly Juvenile Diabetes camping for young diabetics in the region’s provinces.

“Despite our efforts, cases of this disease are still increasing because people lack discipline, continue to smoke, and aren’t conscious of taking care of their health,” Tawatao said.

diabetic couple

A former acting Cebu Capitol administrator Wilma Alesna, 63, a diabetic, said she and her late husband, Orlando, didn’t take good care of their health then.

Alesna said she would drink softdrinks everyday while her husband was a wine drinker.

Orlando Alesna died of complications arising from diabetes in 2007.

“In my early 30s, I used to drink more than five eight ounce bottles of coke everyday,” said Alesna, who had been bedridden since January because of her diabetes.

Alesna, who claimed to have been requested by then acting Gov. Vicente Ting-Ting Dela Cerna in 1993 to be his administrator, said she didn’t eat vegetables then but now with her diabetes, she would force herself to eat vegetables at least twice a week./Correspondents Joy Cherry Quito and Tweeny M. Malinao