Diabetes, BP, obesity high in army
PHOCWENI – There is an alarming scourge of diabetes, hypertension and obesity among members of the army.
The downside of these non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in soldiers is that it is a struggle to manage them. This revelation was shared by Umbutfo Eswatini Defence Force’s (UEDF) Dr Ndumiso Dlamini during the army’s World AIDS Campaign (WAC) Health and Wellness Day. It took place at Phocweni Army Barracks yesterday.
The theme for this year’s event was, ‘Equalise: UEDF Ending AIDS For All’. Dr Dlamini was shedding light on epidemics currently affecting the UEDF, as per findings of the Sabers Study of 2019. He revealed that results from the study painted a disturbing picture about the health of troops, particularly the scourge of NCDs, which some soldiers were not aware of.
Dr Dlamini stated that for some of these endemic conditions, they were somewhat aware of them but for the first time, they now had objective raw data to back up the
UEDF Commander Lieutenant General Mashikilisane Fakudze lighting a candle while his team and NERCHA representative look on. (Inset) The army commander having his blood pressure tested. observations. He mentioned that with this data, the logical expectation was that they would use it to inform policy and create concrete interventions to respond to each of these red flags.
“What this data shows is that we have a serious problem of diabetes, hypertension and obesity. The risk factors for these conditions are known, hence should be easy to manage them, but unfortunately the reality is that we are struggling,” Dr Dlamini said.
He disclosed that a large cohort of troops were found not to even be aware of the impending danger they were in. Meanwhile, Dr Dlamini highlighted that for those who knew their diagnosis, a large part of them were not responding to treatment, that was if they were even lucky enough to access treatment.
Risk
“In short, we have a large cohort of our troops who are at a risk of developing eye problems, heart problems, kidney problems and cancers. Conditions for which we don’t have the capacity to treat. When it comes to NCDs, we are in a crisis and urgent support and interventions are needed,” he revealed.
Dr Dlamini reiterated that the time for speeches and platitudes was now behind them. He said they had reached the era of intentional, deliberate action focused on changing the livelihoods and health of soldiers. He said nothing would happen to address the pandemic unless their facilities were capacitated with suitable human resource and equipment.
Dr Dlamini said as the UEDF, they were as strong as their healthiest soldier. He also stressed that huge investments were needed but more importantly, leadership was what would get them to make meaningful change.
On another note, Dr Dlamini highlighted that it was a known fact that the world over had just emerged from the devastating effects of the Coronavirus pandemic. He alluded to that many soldiers lost their lives to this virus, and several of their hospital staff repeatedly got infected with it.
He elaborated that their facilities and personnel were stretched to the limit, with no hope of anyone providing relief. “I know of colleagues who couldn’t even take time off, despite being infected because there would be no one to help our troops. We thank God and our ancestors, that as it stands today, being COVID-19 positive is more the exception rather than the norm,” Dr Dlamini quipped.
He further appreciated the assistance of partners, government and the leadership, that they managed to save countless lives.