The Diabetic clinic at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) and other health institutions in the Kumasi Metropolis were, last Monday, inundated with people who underwent a free screening to determine their status. According to the Head of the Diabetic Clinic at the KATH, DR Benjamin Eghan, just like HIV and AIDS, diabetes was a killer disease, for which reason it should be taken seriously. He said it was important for the public to be educated on the causes and effects of the disease in order for them to appreciate the danger associated with it. “Many people have the disease but are not aware of their conditions, so they only attend clinic at the time that their conditions have worsened, making it difficult for us to manage the disease” Dr Eghan told Daily Graphic in an interview. He said between 1958 and 1960, diabetes cases in Ghana were minimal, explaining that about four out of 10,000 people had the condition. He pointed out that the diseases was gradually assuming alarming dimension in the Kumasi Metropolis in particular and the country in general, explaining that, over the last five years, about six percent of 100 patients screened were diagnosed with the disease. Expressing concern about the situation, Dr Eghan noted, “people do not only become blind because of diabetes but they also lose their limbs, and have kidney problems as well.” Stressing, he said diabetes has now become a public health problem, explaining that in South Africa, about 12 per cent of the population were diabetic and in Mauritius, 24 per cent of the population had been affected by the disease. He said the ignorance about the diseases was due to lack of awareness and the danger it posed to the public. The World Health Organisation (WHO) was asked to declare November 14 as the World diabetic day. He said the day was selected to coincide with the birthday of Dr Banting, who together with Dr Best, discovered insulin, used to inject diabetic patients to manage the disease. He said the day was always used to offer free screening for residents in the Kumasi Metropolis as a way of creating awareness about the disease and also educating them about the danger associated with it. He said they also offered treatment to those who would be diagnosed and counseled them on their lifestyles to avoid any complication. “The free screening is to get as many people as possible to converge here for screening for us to determine their state of conditions and devise a plan to manage the diseases before it gets to an advanced stage” he further explained. He pointed out that “In the Kumasi Metropolis, some people do not know their condition and by the time they report at the clinic, complications had already set in”.