By Sola Ogundipe
As an urgent effort to lower the rising cost of treating non-communicable ailments such as diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular diseases, among others, the Federal government has been urged to abolish import taxes on vital medications towards making them more affordable and accessible to Nigerians.
Making the call in Lagos, the Diabetes Control Media Advocacy Initiative, DICOMAI, urged Federal and state governments to provide free diabetes management to children and the elderly.
In a statement signed by its Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Dr. Afoke Isiavwe, and Executive Director, Sam Eferaro, DICOMAI expressed outrage over the current high cost of drugs, which have risen as a result of the removal of fuel subsidies and other policies, urging the federal government to take urgent action to lower the costs of drugs and other medical treatments for the poor.
They said, “At the moment access to health care in all parts of the country has become more difficult as the cost of life-saving drugs has gone beyond the reach of most Nigerians. The situation is worse for people suffering from serious conditions some of which require life-long therapeutic management.
“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. For some people, they have been forced to stop taking their regular drugs and are at the risk of developing serious complications.”
Further, they lamented that as a result of incapacity to manage their disease, more Nigerians, are getting diabetes complications, leading to non-traumatic lower extremity amputations, extended hospital stays, and occasionally preventable deaths.
“There’s, therefore, a need to urgently bring down the cost of drugs for some of these conditions. Unfortunately, over 70 percent 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.”
More than 5 million people in Nigeria currently have diabetes, and like elsewhere in the world, the number of cases is rising daily.
Worse still, up to half of patients with type 2 diabetes do not exhibit any symptoms and the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) says that one in two diabetics in the nation go undetected, implying that the number of cases could double or increase further from the current estimate.
“Nigeria cannot afford to experience this particular health tragedy, especially given our current socioeconomic circumstances and the brain drain we are currently experiencing in the health sector.
“We therefore call on President Tinubu 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, 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 asserted.
Common diabetes problems include diabetic foot ulcers, kidney failure, blindness, etc. brought on by poorly treated diabetes.
According to sources in the pharmaceutical sector, if the government waives import customs and other taxes for the importation of these products, the price of these medications could be dramatically cut by as much as 40 percent.
According to the IDF, Diabetes mellitus is referred to as “one of the largest global health emergencies of the 21st century” due in large part to its serious and fatal implications.
Untreated, the condition, which affects almost all of the body’s organs, can lead to lower limb amputations, vision loss, dental issues, kidney failure, and cardiovascular disease.
More concerning is the fact that many Nigerians with diabetes discover their condition only when complications like glaucoma, cataracts, foot ulcers, strokes, etc. have already developed.
It is important to promote diabetes education and better access to routine screenings to aid in early detection. This becomes more crucial as people age or have a family history of the condition.
Source: Vanguard