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…Says over 5m Nigerians living with diabetes
By Doris Obinna
Diabetes Control Media Advocacy Initiative (DICOMAI), a media-based non-governmental organization, has called on the Federal Government to consider the removal of import duties on essential drugs.
The organization said removal of tariffs on essential drugs as urgent measure, especially for diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease, would reduce the increased cost of managing the diseases in the country.
The organization also urged both federal and state governments to make diabetes management free to children and the elderly.
In a statement jointly signed by its Chairman Board of Trustees, Dr. Afoke Isiavwe and Executive Director, Sam Eferaro, DICOMAI decried the present high costs of drugs following the removal of fuel subsidy and other policies.
They urged the government to, as a matter of urgency, come up with measures to make drugs and other medical intervention affordable for the poor.
The statement reads: “We commend the President Bola Tinubu for his swift intervention in some key areas of the Nigerian economy and attempts to bring succour to the poor masses in these hard times. However, we wish to draw his attention to the precarious situation people seeking health care are now facing.
“We believe their plight can be urgently addressed through fresh policies that will impact directly on their conditions. At the moment access to healthcare in all parts of the country has become more difficult as the cost of life-saving drugs have gone beyond the reach of most Nigerians.
“Many people living with diabetes currently have their lives hanging in the balance as the condition is now more difficult, than ever, to control now that the cost of drugs and monitoring devices are no longer affordable. Cases of parents not giving their children vital insulin at the right doses are now becoming rampant.”
According to the organisation, over 70 per cent of medicines used in the country are imported. “The situation is even worse for conditions such as cancer and diabetes that have a large majority of drugs and monitoring devices needed for their management imported.
“Currently, no fewer than five million Nigerians are living with diabetes and like elsewhere in the world, the number of cases is daily increasing.”
They called on the president to intervene urgently to prevent an avoidable health disaster that could result from the neglect of people living with diabetes and other serious conditions such as cancer, hypertension and asthma among others.
“An immediate reduction or total removal of import tariff on these essential drugs will no doubt bring some relief to these group of patients,” DICOMAI said.
