Adopts Two-pronged Approach to Enhance Diabetes Awareness and Access to Care

 Roche Diabetes Care (RDC) India amplified their fight against diabetes this World Diabetes Day through a two-pronged approach of enhancing diabetes awareness and making care more accessible to people with diabetes, in line with this year’s global theme of improving access to care for people with diabetes.

The International Diabetes Federation estimates that there were about 77 million Indians living with diabetes as of 2019, which could increase to 101 million by 2030. India ranks highest among top 10 countries for estimated number of children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes (0–14 years). India is also the largest contributor to regional diabetes mortality with more than 1 million estimated deaths attributable to diabetes and related complications¹.

“The diabetes prevalence and growth forecast in India is dire and if we want to reverse the current rising trend, we need to take urgent and immediate steps that can augment health resources and push for measurable results. Currently, these efforts are carried out in isolated pockets and are therefore limited in their results. When these efforts are combined they have the potential to create amplified results.

We, at RDC India, see ourselves as full partners in creating a stakeholder coalition committed to bringing down the incidence of diabetes in India. Central to this endeavor is the need to ensure access to care at all socio-economic levels”, said Omar Sherief Mohammad, General Manager Roche Diabetes Care India Middle East and Africa.

The company has strategically partnered with key stakeholders to co-create an eco-system of care that helps make care more accessible to people with diabetes. Under their ‘Let’s Talk Diabetes’ initiative, the company will aid diabetes screening and awareness camps at over 650 clinics across India by providing 17000 blood glucometers, 300,000 test strips and conducting awareness programmes for people with diabetes and healthcare professionals. The company has also collaborated with RSSDI to support their ‘Defeat Diabetes’ drive and facilitate upto 100,000 tests by providing blood glucose meters and Accu-Chek Performa strips required for the project. In addition to this, RDC India will collaborate with schools to scale-up ‘Diabeaters’, the award winning diabetes awareness programme for school children, to conduct diabetes awareness and education programme for 40000 schools children India. This will also be supported by an employee volunteer drive. In an effort to reach out to the masses, RDC India is also participating in a diabetes public awareness campaign being run by radio channel Fever FM on the occasion of World Diabetes Day.