At least 2,000 general practitioners offering clinical services to diabetes patients will now benefit from an online diabetes management training programme.
The programme is fully sponsored by Sanofi and offered in partnership with the International Diabetes Federation, Kenya Diabetes Study Group and Diabetes Kenya.
The three-month programme, which will run from July to September, aims to build capacity of the medics.
According to the IDF, there are approximately 460,000 people are living with diabetes in Kenya.
However, this number is just an estimate and it is based on the adult population.
According to the Kenya Medical Board, there are about 7,000 actively practising health professionals in Kenya.
However, there are about 12 endocrinologists who specialise in diabetes management. This shows that most people seek diabetes care from general practitioners who may benefit from additional up-skilling in diabetes management.
“We are doing this training so that doctors can know how to identify this disease so that we can get accurate statistics,” Joseph Muga, a medical advisor at Sanofi, said.
"We will find a mechanism to make it equitable; most doctors are in Nairobi however we will do it in partnership with the ministry to ensure every county has reasonable allocations for the training slots."
Prevalence of non-communicable diseases in Kenya is on the rise and this has been attributed to socio-economic and demographic changes. Both life expectancy and GDP have improved.
NCDs cause more than 63 per cent of deaths globally. Most of these (80 per cent) are in low and mid-income countries.
Head of the Non-Communicable Diseases Unit at the ministry Dr Ephantus Maree yesterday said 80 to 90 per cent of the deaths are as a result of diabetes type 2, which is preventable.
This training programme is in line with the Kenya National NCD Strategy 2015-2020.
