Bauchi Diabetes Patients Decry Cost Of Food Supplements

Diabetic patients in Bauchi State have decried the rising cost of food supplements that help keep them healthy.

Most patients who spoke to LEADERSHIP Weekend said being consistent with eating prescribed diets remains a stumbling block in their bid to fight the ailment.

They said while taking prescribed drugs which in most cases are within reach, another concern is the stigmatisation they face from the society.

“I am facing a lot of challenges. The biggest one is that I cannot eat the type of food I want. I can only eat a certain category of food. The daily exercise I do is also annoying even though it helps in slowing down the sugar level,” Maman Sadiya, a resident of Misau who has been battling the ailment over the past 10 years said.

She said her survival depends on the availability of the rice commonly called Acha. But at the moment, the food brand has become costlier and scarce due to increased demand for it.

“My prescribed medication is not difficult and costly but the most is the food combination. Shops selling Acha are not enough. You may walk a long distance before you get to the shop and sometimes it will not be available. So our life depends on vegetables as if we are rabbits.

“I feel completely defeated in my drive to maintain diabetes because of how people in the neighbourhood condemn me to death. This pains more than the disease itself,” Sadiya Yunusa, a patient in Misau local government area of Bauchi State told LEADERSHIP Weekend.

Another patient, Malam Haruna, said his inability to eat what he desires keeps haunting him, adding that this had worsened his hypertension.

“My present condition is pitiful, the pressure from the family and the pain of living an isolated life because you can’t eat normal food like anyone and being poor, even the drugs I can’t afford talk less of special food.

“Sometimes I will spend two or three days without taking any drug because I can’t afford it. My income is small and the government has not provided free diabetes drugs for us.  I am just waiting for my death,” he said.

Dr Sule Bathnna,  a consultant endocrinologist at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital Bauchi, said statistics had shown that 75 percent of global deaths from diabetes occur in low and middle-income countries like Nigeria with poor health care, and majority of these deaths occur below the age of 60.

He said people living with diabetes are at high risk of severe illnesses and death from other diseases, and advised people to eat healthy foods, get more physically active, limit their intake of takeaway and processed food and avoid smoking and alcohol in order to prevent  the disease.