The Chief Executive Director of Kenya Diabetes Management and Information Centre Eva Muchemi has raised concerns over the increasing rate of diabetes among the teenagers.
Speaking at Githunguri Girls Secondary School during the launch of the Safaricom's Phase 5 of the free medical camp on Monday, Muchemi attributed the rise of the diabetes cases among the youths to the poor eating habits, and also lack of enough physical activities.
“It is very sad seeing young children as young as four years old being affected by the diabetes disease. A couple of years back, the diabetes disease was only known to affect only the old, but the trend has now changed whereby we can see young youths being affected by the disease,” said Muchemi.
She further said that most of the youths end up discovering that they are diabetic when it is too late, hence making it hard to treat and even manage.
“I urge our youths to be going for diabetic checkups regularly so that they can be able to treat and manage it if they happen to have it. Together with the Safaricom Foundation, we will be holding clinics in different parts of the country where we will be making the diagnosis of diabetes accessible to each and every person in this country,” added Muchemi.
The Chairman of the Safaricom Foundation, Joseph Ogutu, who was present during the event said that all patients who will be referred to other hospitals or health facilities for some specialized treatment will all be under the foundation expenses.
“We are targeting to benefit more than 30,000 Kenyans,” said Ogutu.