ALL THE COSTS associated with diabetes – financial, emotional and social – are high, Minister of Health John Boyce says.
Boyce made the comment while delivering the main address at a ceremony during which a bus was donated to the Diabetes Association of Barbados at Simpson Motors in Warrens, St Michael last Wednesday
The minister said: “Treating diabetes and other chronic non-communicable diseases (CNCDs) is costly and data on the economic burden of non-communicable diseases, reported in Stemming the Tide of Non-Communicable Diseases in the Caribbean, the working document of the landmark Head of Government Summit on CNCDs, held in September 2007 revealed that the direct costs for managing diabetes in Barbados amounted to approximately $75 million. . . .
“Another study on diabetes in Latin American and the Caribbean estimated a productivity loss of US$65 billion and it is clear from these figures that managing diabetes and other NCDs impose a high economic cost and these costs do not include the social or emotional costs that result from amputations or the early death of a parent, a spouse or a worker.” (RL)
