More than three million Mozambicans are living with diabetes

Maputo, 5 Feb (AIM) – More than three million Mozambicans (or around ten per cent of the population) are living with diabetes, declared President Filipe Nyusi on Saturday.

He was speaking at the official inauguration of the Marcelino dos Santos clinic in Maputo, which specializes in treating diabetes. The clinic is named after the Mozambican poet and politician, Marcelino dos Santos, who was one of the founder members of the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo).

Dos Santos died in 2020, and his remains are buried in Maputo’s Monument to the Mozambican Heroes. The official inauguration of the clinic took place on Heroes’ Day, the anniversary of the assassination, on 3 February 1969, of the founder and first President of Frelimo, Eduardo Mondlane.

At the inauguration ceremony, Nyusi noted that “data from recent years indicates that the prevalence of diabetes has been increasing, in Mozambique, and is now estimated at three million people”.

Diabetes, he said, is one of the main causes of early mortality and morbidity, and of physical incapacity among people of working age. It thus has an impact on production and on the development of the country.

The new clinic, added Nyusi, “meets a need that Maputo city, and the country in general, have felt for a long time”.

“This clinic”, he said, “will allow Mozambicans, including those on low and medium incomes, to have access to specialist care”.

The clinic is the result of cooperation in health care between Mozambique and Cuba. 74 professionals work at the clinic, including Cuban doctors who have specialised in treating diabetes.

Nyusi hoped that the Marcelino dos Santos clinic will become a national and regional reference point for the treatment of chronic diseases such as diabetes.

(AIM)

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