Diabetes rising among children
Jul 30, 2006
A LIFESTYLE characterised by inactivity, comfort and overeating among Uganda’s urban school-going youth from well-to-do families has made them and their parents prone to diabetes, exposing them to impotence, research has revealed.
By Cyprian Musoke
A LIFESTYLE characterised by inactivity, comfort and overeating among Uganda’s urban school-going youth from well-to-do families has made them and their parents prone to diabetes, exposing them to impotence, research has revealed.
Opening the 4th scientific conference of the Uganda Diabetes Association (UDA) at Hotel Africana yesterday, Premier Prof. Apolo nsibambi regretted the findings of UDA, saying they cast a gloomy picture on Uganda’s health image.
“Here in Uganda, diabetes mellitus and hypertension were considered to be rare diseases among Africans at the time of our independence up to the seventies.
However, by 1972, only 254 African diabetic subjects were registered in the new Mulago Hospital diabetic clinic.
“Most of the current upsurge of new diabetics is in the third world countries, particularly in the subtropical regions. This is mainly because of the changing lifestyle, tending towards those characterised by inactivity, comfort and overeating,†he said.
He said appropriately one million Ugandans suffer from diabetes mellitus.
“This is a huge number for a poor country like Uganda to cope with, bearing in mind that we are already over-burdened with the communicable diseases like tuberculosis, AIDS and malaria,†he said.
UDA chairman Prof. Andrew Otim said the prevalence of diabetes among school-going children began to shoot up in 1976, for ages as young as 6-11 and 12-17.
Otim, also a diabetic, formed UDA in 1982 to train diabetic trainers and create public awareness of it.
A LIFESTYLE characterised by inactivity, comfort and overeating among Uganda’s urban school-going youth from well-to-do families has made them and their parents prone to diabetes, exposing them to impotence, research has revealed.
Opening the 4th scientific conference of the Uganda Diabetes Association (UDA) at Hotel Africana yesterday, Premier Prof. Apolo nsibambi regretted the findings of UDA, saying they cast a gloomy picture on Uganda’s health image.
“Here in Uganda, diabetes mellitus and hypertension were considered to be rare diseases among Africans at the time of our independence up to the seventies.
However, by 1972, only 254 African diabetic subjects were registered in the new Mulago Hospital diabetic clinic.
“Most of the current upsurge of new diabetics is in the third world countries, particularly in the subtropical regions. This is mainly because of the changing lifestyle, tending towards those characterised by inactivity, comfort and overeating,†he said.
He said appropriately one million Ugandans suffer from diabetes mellitus.
“This is a huge number for a poor country like Uganda to cope with, bearing in mind that we are already over-burdened with the communicable diseases like tuberculosis, AIDS and malaria,†he said.
UDA chairman Prof. Andrew Otim said the prevalence of diabetes among school-going children began to shoot up in 1976, for ages as young as 6-11 and 12-17.
Otim, also a diabetic, formed UDA in 1982 to train diabetic trainers and create public awareness of it.