DIABETES MELLITUS IN AUSTRALIA

It is a disease whereby there is too much sugar floating in one’s body, as a result of failure by the pancreas to produce enough insulin, or resistance of the insulin by the body cells, where the immune system detects insulin as a dangerous substance to the body which should be fought with. Diabetes is divided into three parts, type 1 diabetes where there is complete lack of insulin in the body as the immune system destroys all the cells responsible for its production, type 2 diabetes, where the cells produce insulin but the immune system has a certain degree of resistance to the insulin and gestational diabetes which occurs during birth. SCALE AND SIZE OF THE HEALTH ISSUE. Diabetes is one of the most fast growing chronic diseases in the world.

In the 2015 International Diabetes Federation, research stated that at least one in every eleven adults were diabetic, leading to a total of 415 million diabetics in the whole world. POPULATION GROUP AT RISK. The prevalence rate of the disease is highly determined by sex and age. The disease is normally higher in men as compared to women. Reports from the Australian Bureau of Statistics indicate a higher percentage of the people with the disease, around 7%, being men as compared to women who remain with 5%. Also the prevalence rate of the disease is directly proportional to the age factor. Around 1 in every 8 indigenous were having the disease, compared to 1 in every 30 non indigenous, who are said to be living with the disease. Diabetes greatly impacts negatively on the Australian economy.

Diabetes is normally associated with other body weaknesses such as blindness, heart and kidney failure. This makes the patient quit their area of work thus ending their productive lives. Normally, a sick person will require a lot of care, the next of keens of this patients are therefore forced to participate effectively in their areas of work, as they have to spend time taking care of their ailing ones. The government decided to work in coordination with other nongovernmental organizations, where the organizations would focus all their attention in their specific area of interest where they are best placed to provide additional support to the government and ensure that all investments in the project run in order. The government also decided to hold relations with other organizations from outside the country to get more ideas to employ in fighting with the disease.

GOALS OF THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL DIABETES STRATEGY. The first goal of the strategy is to try and prevent more people from acquiring type 2 diabetes. The strategy had noted that type 2 diabetes is the most chronic type of diabetes as it affects the highest percentage, around 85%, of people living with diabetes. Also, it will advise parents on how to control the amount of sugar foods taken by children. They also adopted the Australian type 2 diabetes risk assessment tool (AUSDRISK) to help in determining one’s risk in acquiring diabetes. This will help people living with the disease to adopt better living conditions, thus reducing death rates among diabetics, as well as reducing new cases of diabetes. Reduction of occurrence of diabetes related complications and improving life quality among diabetics is the next goal of the strategy.

Most diabetes cases that occur today can be prevented by eating well, body practicing to reduce the amount of fats in the body and proper raising of children, not spoiling the child with so many junks. The government is aiming at holding partnerships such as the World Health Organization to continue with research programs in order to learn better methods of preventing diabetes. Generally, the Australian National Diabetes Strategy 2016-2020 clearly displays working efforts that when applied to the fullest, would greatly lead to reduction of diabetes cases in significant levels. The strategy clearly identifies the major causes of the disease, and most of its ideas aim to hit the cause, thus ensuring that cases of diabetes due to that cause are brought to the lowest standards possible.