8 Percent Of 225 Thousand Balikpapan Residents Have Diabetes

JAKARTA - The Balikpapan City Health Office found that 8.8 percent of the 223 thousand people who were specifically examined at the puskesmas in Balikpapan during January-September 2023 had diabetes mellitus.

"We found around 20 thousand people, sugar levels above 200 mg/dL," said the Health Office's Uninfectious Disease Control Sub-Coordinator, Dr Agus Iriansyah, quoting ANtara, Sunday.

This condition is called hyperglycemia, and one of the signs of diabetes mellitus.

"We also found 3 percent of residents who had pre- diabetes," said Dr Agus. This means that blood sugar levels are more than normal, 70-140 mg/dL, but not up to 200 mg/dL.

However, this pre diabetes can still be treated so as not to become a diabetes.

Head of the Balikpapan Health Service (Kadinkes), Dr. Andi Sri Juliarty, also said that during the COVID-19 outbreak between March 2020 and June 2023, around 2000 people died in Balikpapan and the majority of them were diabetics.

On the other hand, after the COVID-19 outbreak, nationally, diabetes mellitus cases increased, including in Balikpapan.

Because diabetes brings a lot of complications. Starting from the upper body to the bottom. My eyes hurt, damaged the kidneys so that they also became dialysis patients. Diabetics also often experience numbness or loss of taste in certain parts of the body. As a result, theOOt leg is not felt and the wound does not heal," said Dr. Juliarty.

Therefore, Kadinkes invites the people of Balikpapan to adopt a healthy lifestyle by taking the time to exercise or at least doing physical activities, eating vegetables and fruit, drinking water, stopping or at least reducing smoking, not drinking alcohol, and diligently checking health conditions.

With this background, Pertamina also invited her employees and their families to exercise together on Saturday (21/10). A total of 1,500 people exercise their roads together with routes around Merdeka Square in the outer circle, through Jalan Sports, Prapatan Street, Dubbs Street, and return to Sudirman Street to Banua Patra.

"We also have a blood sugar test, in collaboration with the Balikpapan Health Office," said General Manager of PT Kilang Pertamina Internasional Balikpapan Unit Arafat Bayu.

The blood sugar test is also the record for most blood sugar tests on one occasion, which is no less than 1,500 people.*