Lions Clubs, a community service-oriented clubs in Ghana, subsidiary of the Association of Lions Clubs International, has organised a free diabetes screening exercise for residents of Mamprobi.

The exercise, which offered free testing and medication for the first 30 days for those diagnosed, was organised in collaboration with Jos Pharmaceuticals Limited to commemorate the Day at Mamprobi.

The participating Lions Clubs were; Accra Metro, Accra Diamond, Adenta Mountain View, Accra Spintex, Accra Ebony, and Accra Harmony Lions Clubs.

The theme for World Diabetes Day 2020 is "The Nurse and Diabetes".

The campaign aims to raise awareness around the crucial role that nurses play in supporting people living with diabetes.

Mr Kwasi Ampadu-Kissi, Zone Two Chairman, Lions Club, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), during the exercise, underscored the need for people to know their diabetes status, saying, this would create more awareness amongst people who might be unaware of the effects of diabetes.
He said as Lions they needed to reach out to the world and tell people about the disease, which if managed well could prolong lives.

Mr Kwabena Dabi Appiah, Past President of Accra Diamonds Lions Club, said prior to the November 14 event, the group organised a health walk to invite the public to the health screening exercise, and to create awareness about diabetes.

He said the health screening, which was held at the premises of Jos Pharmaceuticals, Mamprobi, included; checks for blood sugar, blood pressure, weight, height and Body Mass Index (BMI).

Madam Adeline Sadzi, Physician Assistant at Mamprobi Polyclinic, also told the GNA that during the health screening, they realized that most of the people screened had record high blood pressure, with some recording high blood sugar level.

“It is worrying because diabetes and hypertension are taking the lead cause of Outpatients department (OPD) attendance in most hospitals”.

Madam Sadzi, therefore, commended the organizers for helping to reach out to such victims and most importantly putting in interventions to curb complications.

Dr Joel Sarsah, Chief Executive Officer of Jos Pharmaceuticals, said the Type One Diabetes was not reversible but could be managed, while the Type Two Diabetes could be acquired, and that statistics showed that most people acquired through obesity and the type of food they ate.

He said a lot of people had Type Two Diabetes and that could be controlled, saying “most amputation that you are seeing today comes out of Type Two Diabetes because of poor management or lack of knowledge about the existence of the disease”.

Dr Sarsah said part of the initiative was to bring the awareness for people to be more conscious that diabetes was real and underscoring, the need for it to be controlled.

As part of the commemoration, celebrated on November 14, every year, Lions Clubs led by Adenta Mountain View, organised a free screening exercise at the Adenta Shopping Centre.