Most diabetic patients present late to the hospital – Dr Qereqeretabua

CWM Hospital General Surgeon Dr. Timoci Qereqeretabua says one of the challenges they are facing when it comes to diabetes is that a lot of people present themselves late which ends up having the infected part amputated.

While raising awareness on diabetes, Dr Qereqeretabua says they had conducted research in 2017 to look at the various types of infections and what they found at CWM alone, is 166 infections below knee infections they receive in one year.

He says this is a very high number and the International Diabetic Federation has said that Fiji had the worst life expectancy in the world for those with diabetes.

He adds we had the worst amputation rates in the world.

Dr Qereqeretabua says coming out of the data, they concluded that the most high-risk are young iTaukei males from around 45 to 60 years of age.

He says these were the people who were coming in and getting an amputation but the median age for an amputation in this country is 55 years.

The General Surgeon says these are working-class people who are losing part of their limbs or their whole leg, putting them in a very compromised socioeconomic status.

Dr Qereqeretabua also highlighted that almost every 12.5 hours, someone was losing a limb.

He says about 70% of patients come with amputations that live between the Suva Nausori corridor.

He further says that the data also noted that more Indo-Fijian communities suffer from diabetes and other non-communicable diseases, but the rates of amputation are the highest in the iTaukei.

He adds some patients only come to the hospital when the leg has become socially unacceptable.