Diabetes patients turn to quacks as soaring drug prices bite, group warns

Network of Persons Living with Diabetes in Nigeria has disclosed that their members were turning to quacks and spiritualists following the hike in the cost of medication for diabetes.

Mr Bernard Enyia National Coordinator, Network of Persons Living with Diabetes in Nigeria made the call in Calabar during a patient advocacy campaign to the Cross River House of Assembly.

Enyia said diabetes is a condition that happens when someone’s blood sugar (glucose) is too high; it develops when the pancreas doesn’t make enough insulin at all.

Enyia who appealed for urgent action on the insulin crisis in Cross River and beyond said the cost of essential diabetes medicine such as insulin had skyrocketed from N3,500 in 2022 to N26,000 in 2024.

He said glucometers now cost N30,000 and test-strips have increased to N15,000 adding that an average person living with diabetes spends over N150,000 monthly on treatment which had subjected them to untold hardship.

“The economic downtown and inflation in the country has forced many of our members to abandon their prescribed drugs for cheaper alternatives from chemists, spiritualists and trade-medical drug vendors.

“This has led to more and more complications for our people as many are breaking down, some are dying, increasing the number of widows widowers and orphans, while the state and Federal governments are not doing much about curbing the menace of diabetes.

“The essence of this activity is to cry-out to government to earmark a percentage of the budget to tackle diabetes care because up till now, there is zero per cent of Cross River budget that is meant for diabetes,” he said.

Responding, Mrs Kate Ubi, Clerk Cross River House of Assembly who spoke to the campaigners in the absence of the Speaker of the house, said the house members were out of Calabar for an official engagement.

Ubi appealed to the diabetic patients to send their representatives to come back to the house from Sept. 2, to have a better and robust engagement with the speaker and other legislators.

The campaign which started from the complex of the state Ministry of Health saw the patients distributing flyers on the plight of an average diabetic in the nation following the medication’s price hike.