My friend who did not
join the party – What was he doing
Earlier this month, I returned from my
annual holiday in India – two weeks, never enough, but very
refreshed all the same.
One the things I
managed to do was to get back in touch with my class mates at school
many of whom I have not had contact for 30 years. We did manage to
get together about a dozen of us and met at early dawn in the Marina
Beach, Chennai (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marina_Beach)
There was one guy whom
we thought would come but he did not. He apologised for not turning
up. We wondered what kept him so busy that he could not join in? And
boy it was really something big...
It turns out that my
old friend Dinakar is the project manager for CDiC India. CDiC is
Changing Diabetes in Children where the insulin manufacturer
NovoNordisk provides diabetic clinics, diagnosis, monitoring and
treatment for children with type 1 diabetes, all completely free
for 5 years. Novo piloted this in Africa and has an ambition to roll
it out in all developing countries. Their website gives a lot more
information. There are more than 250000 type 1 diabetic children in
the developing world and if you are a child diabetic in Africa the
life expectancy post-diagnosis is about 1 year. CDiC is a very
innovative and noble idea. The aim is that once Novo establishes
these, in time the countries would adopt them as a part of their
healthcare delivery.
A private company
providing comprehensive free service already for nearly 10000
children and counting resulting in huge benefits for the society and
large savings for someone else (the government, the families etc and
not the private company who does this) in terms of future healthcare
costs (due to complications of poorly managed type 1 diabetes);
absolutely great. Wish them all success.
Of course we missed my
friend Dinakar at the beach but he was only a few days away from the CDiC inauguration and those children needed him more.
HEMADRI
Changing Diabetis in
Children
The CDiC program in
India was inaugurated on 8 September 2011.
Roche, another drug
manufacturer, have extended their support for this program.
