NAGICO has teamed up with the Diabetes Foundation of St. Maarten and will provide the opportunity for the public to be tested for Diabetes on Friday August 28th at their Philipsburg offices.
The testing will take place during a four hour window, from 10AM to 2PM this Friday. On hand to do the testing will be Lotty Peterson, President of the Diabetes Foundation and her team of volunteers.
The testing, compliments NAGICARE, The NAGICO Medical Policy, is an initiative geared at increasing the level of awareness Diabetes. Assistant Manager of the Medical Department, Ellen Benjamin said, "It is important for all St. Maarteners and persons living on the island to realize that awareness about Diabetes is important; it has been called one of the "silent killers" because in most cases persons do not know that they are diabetics until they face a crisis as a result of the disease. NAGICO’s aim is to encourage people to take action about their health by gaining knowledge and getting tested."
Marketing Manager, Jasmine Payne noted, "NAGICO has a keen interest in this disease which the World Health Organization (WHO) has deemed a Global Epidemic. Projections from the World Health Organization suggest that by 2020 the world diabetic population will double, and that struggling economies will be unable to cope and provide adequate health care. In 2005, The WHO published statistics which point to 1.1 million people across the globe dying from diabetes."
Ms. Payne added, "The thing which is most interesting about this disease is the harmful impact it has on different aspects of a person’s health- amputations, blindness and the fact that some live for years with diabetes and then their cause of death is often recorded as heart diseases or kidney failure. By working together with The Diabetes Foundation of St. Maarten, NAGICO hopes to help them achieve their goal of testing 2000 people per year and promote a healthier population by highlighting the steps they should take to avoid diabetes or manage their illness."
Lotty Peterson, President of The Diabetes Foundation of St. Maarten, was at NAGICO’s offices to finalize the plans for Friday’s testing session, she said, "We have 15 volunteers who make themselves available to do the testing throughput the year, we go to various sites each month to sensitize the public and encourage proactive testing. Our aim is to find people who might have diabetes but are not aware; we want to get to them before complications set in. We are happy that NAGICO has opened their doors for us to do the testing."