Diabetes major Novo Nordisk will soon launch a diabetes control programme in Goa under which, the company will prepare a diabetes registry and will also introduce the Improve Control Mobile Clinic in the state. The entry into Goa comes after the state government inked a pact with the company to help control and prevent diabetes in the region.

The registry will help to maintain database on the prevalence of the diabetes in the population in the state. It will also keep tabs on the incidence of diabetes based on age. The Mobile Clinic is part of an initiative by Novo Nordisk to take diabetes care to the grassroot level in the country. The mobile clinic has already been launched in Bangalore and New Delhi.

In Goa, Novo Nordisk would create public awareness about diabetes, educate doctors and paramedics besides checking blood samples of the people and assess the progress. The company will also impart education on the social, humanitarian and economic consequences of diabetes. It will also highlight the three micro-vascular complications of diabetes which are neuropathy, nephropathy or kidney pathology and retinopathy.

The MoU on Diabetes Care Programme was signed in the presence of Health Minister Vishwajeet Rane. Anand Prakash, Development Commissioner and Secretary Health represented Government of Goa while Melvin Oscar D`Souza, managing director, Novo Nordisk was signatory to the pact.

While the country records around 40.9 million diabetics which is estimated to grow up to 80 million by 2025, the prevalence of diabetes in Goa was 8.3 per cent of the total population in 2005. In 2007, it is 12.2 per cent.

The Denmark-based pharma major decided there is an imperative need to draw serious attention to Indians about the causes, symptoms, complications and modern treatment modalities in diabetes.

Under the Novo Nordisk Education Foundation initiative screening and collection of diabetic patient data would be undertaken as remedial steps. Other measures to be introduced are involvement of medical practitioners in the government and private sectors besides Anganwadi workers to be associated in the mobile clinics programme for the rural areas.