Africa’s sharp increase in diabetes making COVID-19 worse

Access to vaccines remains poor. Thus far, only 6.6 per cent of the African population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, compared with about 40 per cent globally.

Data from 37 countries indicates that since March 2021, over 6.5 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have gone to Africans with comorbidities, representing 14 per cent of all doses administered so far.

Efforts to prioritize people with comorbidities, like diabetes, are accelerating with about half of those 6.5 million doses administered in just the last couple of months. However, there is still a lot more work to be done to ensure people at high risk receive the vaccines they need.

“Nine months since COVID-19 vaccination campaigns began in Africa, we are still nowhere near where we need to be with protecting our most vulnerable,” Dr. Moeti said. “There is an urgent need to step up vaccination and other key services to people at high risk, including those with diabetes.”

There are two main types of diabetes:

Type 1 — is caused by a condition early in life that damages the pancreas and impairs insulin production.

Type 2 — is linked to poor diet, obesity and lack of exercise—where the body struggles to process insulin.

About 90% of diabetes cases globally, and the vast majority in Africa, are Type 2, with rising rates in Africa attributed to the same poor diets and sedentary lifestyles causing a surge in Type 2 diabetes around the world.

In addition to COVID-19 risks, diabetes can also increase risk of heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, lower limb amputation, visual impairment, blindness and nerve damage, including erectile dysfunction.

“All Africans at risk of diabetes must have access to testing,” Dr. Moeti said. “We can also stop diabetes from claiming more lives by promoting healthy, affordable diets and regular exercise.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, access to diabetes care has been severely disrupted in the African Region. Lockdowns to limit the spread of COVID-19, for example, have impeded access to health care and the basic elements of proper disease management, such as routine glucose monitoring and eating a healthy diet.

To improve equitable access to quality diabetes care, WHO launched the Global Diabetes Compact in April 2021. This builds on work in recent years to rollout the WHO Package of Essential Non-communicable Disease (WHO PEN) interventions for primary health care in low-resource settings.

So far, 21 African countries have started using this package. Benin, Eritrea, Eswatini, Lesotho and Togo have achieved national expansion covering all primary health care facilities.