Strategy to halt diabetes scourge in Manukau

By REBECCA WALSH


The number of people with diabetes in Counties Manukau is growing so fast that within five years a new satellite clinic is likely to be needed every year to cope with demand.

Figures presented at a summit aimed at developing a communitywide strategy against the disease, showed an estimated 12,000 people in Counties Manukau have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and possibly as many again went undiagnosed. That figure was expected to double by 2020.

The scale of the problem has prompted the district health board and the Manukau City Council to look at ways of combating the disease across many areas - from fast-food outlets offering healthier options to incorporating more exercise in schools.

Yesterday about 200 people from the health sector, schools and council attended the summit at Manurewa Marae to discuss the proposed five-year strategy.

District health board chairman Ross Keenan said research predicted an ageing population and the increasing numbers of people with diabetes could mean within five years a new satellite clinic with 20 dialysis stations would be needed every year. The number of people requiring kidney dialysis in Counties Manukau was almost double the national average.

It cost about $45,000 a year to treat a person with dialysis and it was estimated to cost the health system 2.5 times as much to treat someone with diabetes.

Summit project manager Paul Stephenson said the community was not going to beat diabetes with a few programmes in the next three to five years, it would take decades and the health sector could not do it alone.

Margie Fepulea'i, general manager of Pacific Health at Counties Manukau said tackling obesity - one of the leading causes of diabetes - early was key. Nationally about a third of children are overweight but 60 per cent of Pacific Island children and 40 per cent of Maori children are overweight.

Encouraging greater physical activity in people's everyday environment through urban design was an essential component of the Flat Bush development, Bruce Harland of Manukau City Council said.

Mr Harland said walkways and cycleways were incorporated into the town's design as well as a pedestrian town centre.

Spokespeople for Maori and Pacific action groups said leadership was needed to help change cultural behaviours and attitudes to food and physical activity.

Fighting diabetes

Counties Manukau is developing a community-wide strategy to tackle the growing problem of diabetes.

Initiatives include working with the food industry to come up with healthy food options, targeting information on nutrition and exercise for children and urban design that incorporates safe access to walkways and cycleways.

Diabetes is New Zealand's leading cause of blindness, kidney failure and lower extremity amputation.

Treating diabetes and its complications costs New Zealand an estimated $340 million a year, rising to $1 billion in 2021.