Paediatrician advises parents to request blood sugar test

Dr. Thereza Piloya-Were, a Ugandan Paediatric Endocrinologist has advised parents to request for a blood sugar test when their children get sick.

She said the test would rule out or confirm the presence of diabetes and will help with early interventions and next steps as children could also get diabetes.

“I have seen even a day old child with a certain type of diabetes that also needed insulin” she explained and advised parents to look out for symptoms such as frequent urination, excessive drinking of water and tiredness even when the child is eating a lot.

Dr Piloya-Were gave the advice at the opening of an educational and wellness camp for young people with Diabetes dubbed: “Pamoja” in Accra.

The Pamoja camp, organised by Diabetes Youth Care, a Ghanaian NGO with support from Sonia Nabeta Foundation, a Ugandan NGO aims at educating, empowering and inspiring children with Type 1 diabetes.

The programme brought together 83 youth from Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda and will encourage the youth to work together on a common agenda and train them on advocacy.

Dr Piloya-Were said Uganda had achieved a lot in terms of identifying diabetes in children, “In Uganda now every child admitted at the emergency unit is tested to be sure of the blood sugar.

“We have moved from thinking that there were only about 100 children with diabetes in Uganda to a database of 1000 children with diabetes” and explained that in the past, the Ugandan doctors used to think that diabetes was a “white man’s” disease and so did not have much knowledge in handling it.

Ms Vivian Nabeta, President of the Vivian Nabeta Foundation said the Pajoma camp provided a learning platform for youth in the sister countries while empowering them to become effective advocates.

The camp also trained the youth in a holistic way to ensure total care for their minds, body and spiritual wellbeing

“Pamoja” is a Swahili word that translates to Together we can, she said type 1 diabetes should never get in the way of a child’s dream.