Association says diabetes avoidable

By LOUISAH FRANK
PEOPLE in Papua New Guinea need to know that diabetes can be avoided, Diabetics Association general secretary Dr Joyce Sauk says.
Sauk said people wait until they saw symptoms of diabetes before going for check-ups which were often too late.
She encouraged people to go to health facilities to check for their sugar level and blood pressure.
“More people are dying from the disease that can be prevented because there were facilities around the country,” Sauk said.
“One of the drawbacks was that not a lot of people are aware of how and where to go for testing.”
Association’s vice-president Pradeep Panda said the government, through the Health Department, concentrated more on commutable diseases like malaria and tuberculosis while lifestyle diseases like diabetes and cancer were claiming a lot of lives.
Panda said the association had been in the country for a long time but because it did not get much support from the government, it had to look into the private sector, like the Malaysian Association of PNG, for help. The Malaysian Association gave the Diabetes Association K20,000.
Malaysian Association president Pang Heng Chew said his organisation would continue to support the work of the Diabetes Association and other organisations that supported education, health, children and women.