Healthcare specialists at Stellenbosch University have launched a WhatsApp-based application to help diabetic patients manage the disease at home.
Diabetes is the major co-morbidities associated with serious COVID-19 complications and one of the most pressing health issues in South Africa.
Healthcare specialists say one in four adults over the age of 45 have diabetes.
In the Cape Metro, over a hundred thousand people have been diagnosed with the lifestyle disease.
COVID-19 has disrupted many services, including education campaigns aimed at helping people manage their condition.
“Normally with diabetics and chronic diseases, they have clubs within the health centres and people specifically with diabetes or hypertension, they would come to the clinics and receive their education, the treatment and the care within those clinics,” says Faculty of Family Medicine and Primary Care Dr Darcelle Schouw.
Schouw says due to the de-escalation of some services due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of the virus on society, they believe it is safer for people with chronic diseases not to come to the centre to protect themselves from severe infection.
Head of Division in Family Medicine and Primary Care Professor Bob Mash says: “We recorded 16 messages to cover all the essential information on diabetes and also about preventing transmission or getting coronavirus. So now we are trying to get it out there.”
The service is free and can be activated by sending the message “hi” to 087 240 5094.
Users will then be guided through the process to register, and will automatically receive a three to four-minute audio message every day for 16 days.
