Diabetes puts thousands at risk

By PATRICIA TURLOM
Diabetes not only affects the heart, nervous system and kidney but also the eye, says Nonga General Hospital ophthalmic clinician Sr Joy Bungtabu
A total 38,000 patients have been diagnosed with diabetes in East New Britain with 300 of them prone to diabetic retinopathy from 2014 to 2018.
Bungtabu said diabetic retinopathy was a sickness in the eye caused when there was high sugar levels in the body.
It tears small veins at the back of the eye and cause them to bleed.
“The most affected group of people are those in the age of 30 and above,” Bungtabu said.
She said nurses were working hard in carrying out public awareness to encourage people to control their diets, complete their medication to control their sugar levels, and go for hospital reviews to avoid diabetic retinopathy.
“People with high blood pressure can also suffer hypertension retinopathy or bleeding veins at the back of the eye,” Bungtabu said.
She said continuous bleeding in the eyes could cause retinal detachment which had no cure or treatment and led to blindness.
Laser treatment is used to stop bleeding veins in the eye but does not improve vision.
Some patients in the province undergo fundoscopy test at Nonga.
Funduscopy is a test that allows a health professional to see inside the fundus of the eye and other structures using an ophthalmoscope (or funduscope).
It is done as part of an eye examination and may be done as part of a routine physical examination
If bleeding veins are found in the eye, patients are referred to Port Moresby for treatment since Nonga does not have the facilities.
“The number of diabetic patients in the past was not as high as the number of diabetic patients today,” Bungtbu said.