City residents receive free diabetes screening test

By Sally Tiwari
RESIDENTS of Port Moresby received free diabetes screening tests in the city yesterday.
The testing was funded and organised by Hope World Wide PNG to commemorate World Diabetes Day, which falls on Nov 14.
Hope World Wide diabetes programme manager Augustine Kose said last year they set up only one stall and could not cater for the people who wanted tests. So this year they decided to set up beside City Pharmacy outlets to carry out the screening test.
He said a number of nurses from clinics in the National Capital District as well as students from the University of Papua New Guinea School of Medicine and Health Science volunteered to carry out the tests.
This year’s theme was “Act on diabetes now”, with those commemorating the day wearing blue.
Kose said by 3pm they had tested more than 550 people but there were still people queuing up at the stalls to get tested.
The screening test was done for only two kina but those who could not afford that were given free screening tests.
Kose, who is the vice president of the Diabetes Association of PNG, said he would like to see this testing carried out in other provinces as well and appealed to Minister for Health Jamie Maxtone-Graham to help them enhance the programme.
Diabetes occurs in three ways; it can be hereditary or comes about because of unhealthy eating habits such as consumption of greasy or sweet food as well as through mother to child transmission.
Like HIV/AIDS, it kills as many as 3.8 million people each year, meaning one person dies every eight seconds from diabetes.