04/11/2024
As the World Diabetes Day draws closer, Support the Diabetics Organisation (SUTEDO) will release a short film that highlights the challenges of storing insulin in rural areas with no refrigerator let alone the presence of electric power.
Insulin is a hormone that regulates glucose in blood. However for people living with type 1 diabetes, because their insulin producing cells have been destroyed, they have to inject insulin daily to stay alive.
It should be noted that other types of diabetes might require insulin injection too.
This liquid, insulin is currently the 6th most expensive liquid globally, and many users of this liquid cannot even afford it.
If being stored for long, it needs a specific temperature for it to work.
What happens if you do not have the necessary storage tools?
Are there certified alternatives?
On November 14, 2024 as we we commemorate the World Diabetes Day, we shall take you through the ways we store insulin in rural settings of Uganda.
Note:
A research study by Ashutosh Mittal et al. (2006) showed that an earth/ clay water pot in an ambient temperature of 23°C, could maintain a temperature of 4.7 to 8.3 °C as the ambient relative humidity decreased from 60 to 15%.
With a prototypical cool chamber containing water tested in Kolkata, India under an ambient temperature of 34.5–35 °C, the cooling effect reached a maximum of 7 °C between 3 and 3:30 PM and then declined to 4.5 °C around 6 PM.
International Diabetes Federation World Diabetes Foundation World Health Organization (WHO) Africa Diabetes Alliance Diabetes Africa
