The World Diabetes Foundation (WDF) and Access to Healthcare-Coloplast’s donation program-have signed a contract to initiate a new healthcare project in India that aims to improve treatment of diabetic wounds. Arun Bal, MS, PhD, founder president of the Diabetic Foot Society of India, as local partner, applied for support to drive the project.
“Every single day, 110 Indians have a foot or part of their leg amputated due to diabetic foot ulcers, and an unknown number die before they are even diagnosed,” Per Ole Nielsen, project manager of Access to Healthcare, was quoted as saying in a Coloplast press release.
Training in the diagnosis and treatment of diabetic wounds is essential to reduce this figure, underlining the importance of education projects. Further, treatment of lower-limb diabetic wounds is significantly less costly than the alternative.
“It only costs US $3 to educate a diabetes patient so he will be able take care of his feet and prevent foot ulcers, whereas it costs an estimated $650 to amputate a limb and another $524 for a limb prosthesis,” said Anil Kapur, MD, managing director of the WDF and chairman of the Access to Health Care donation board. “Costs like these put people into lifelong indebtedness. We are proud to support this project together with Coloplast, and we hope our joint funding will improve the quality of life for poor and disadvantaged people suffering from foot ulcers and foot complications.”
As part of the project, the Diabetic Foot Society of India will train 2,280 healthcare professionals in modern wound-care treatment, supported by Access to Healthcare and the WDF.
