Canadian Diabetes Association launches campaign to address burden of diabetes in New Brunswick

The Canadian Diabetes Association is urging candidates who are seeking office in the 2010 New Brunswick Provincial Election to take diabetes seriously by committing to a list of priorities that will help improve the lives of New Brunswickers who live with diabetes.

The Diabetes Challenge includes:

• Developing and implementing a comprehensive and integrated provincial diabetes program;
• Ensuring that New Brunswickers living with diabetes do not face undue financial hardship due to managing their disease;
• Establishing a catastrophic drug program for the province to ensure access to effective and affordable medication for all New Brunswickers;
• Standardizing and improving the quality of care provided through the New Brunswick diabetes education centres; and
• Improving the coordination and performance measurement of diabetes surveillance activities in New Brunswick.

A unique and interactive website http://election.diabetes.ca has been launched to help New Brunswickers get involved.  The Election Central website contains all of the tools needed to become active in your constituency for the upcoming election, and most importantly, make an informed decision on Election Day.

"We recommend that all candidates and parties in this election make diabetes a priority by introducing a comprehensive diabetes strategy that will address the major drivers increasing diabetes costs and prevalence," said Jake Reid, Regional Director, New Brunswick & PEI, Canadian Diabetes Association.  "Targeted investments in improving access to diabetes health services, education, medications, devices and supplies and financial support are all key elements in the prevention of diabetes and the serious medical complications associated with the disease." 

Earlier this year, the Association released The New Brunswick Diabetes Cost Model which found that both the cost and prevalence of diabetes in the province are at dramatically high levels and it is expected that this burden will continue to elevate over the next decade.

It is estimated that in New Brunswick, there are currently 65,000 people that have been diagnosed with diabetes (8.6% of the population), and this will rise to 88,000 (10.9% of the population) by 2020. This challenge becomes magnified when we consider that the rate of those with undiagnosed diabetes in New Brunswick has been estimated to be as high as 30%.