Willemstad, March 12, 2026 –The numbers tell a worrying story, but the real impact of diabetes is felt in people’s lives. Following last week’s warning about childhood diabetes, Curaçao Medical Center (CMC) is calling attention to the human cost of uncontrolled diabetes—serious complications that affect patients, families, and the wider community.
Between 2020 and 2025, over 300 people each year in Curaçao needed dialysis. Dialysis keeps people alive when their kidneys stop working due to long-term diabetes. Each patient spends hours in the hospital multiple times a week, adjusting their life around the machine that sustains them.
Diabetes can also lead to amputations. In 2024 alone, 58 people lost part of a leg or foot due to complications. That’s more than one person every week facing life-changing surgery often for problems that could have been prevented.
Even more alarming is the rise of diabetes in children. Over the past five years, the number of pediatric diabetes visits has more than doubled. Children diagnosed today face a longer future with possible complications if nothing changes.
One in five adults in Curaçao already lives with diabetes. Combined with an aging population and rising obesity, this places a growing burden on families and the healthcare system. Last year alone, dialysis-related care cost more than XCG 16 million, while hyperbaric treatments for diabetic patients exceeded XCG 200,000. These figures do not yet include the significant costs of surgeries, hospitalizations, ongoing medication, and other specialized treatments. Beyond the financial impact, diabetes also consumes time, energy, and emotional resources, permanently altering the lives of patients and their families.
Diabetes usually begins quietly. It grows slowly, influenced by daily habits, limited physical activity, poor nutrition, and missed medical check-ups. By the time serious complications appear, the disease has often been progressing for years.
This is not a story meant to scare it is about awareness, responsibility, and action. Every dialysis patient and every amputation reflects years of missed chances to prevent complications. Simple steps regular screenings, healthy meals, exercise, early medical follow-up, and shared responsibility in families and workplaces can make a real difference.
CMC is asking everyone: families, schools, employers, healthcare providers, and community leaders, to turn awareness into action. Prevention starts outside hospital walls: in kitchens, classrooms, workplaces, and neighborhoods, every single day.
Diabetes is not only a health issue it is a societal and economic challenge. Early prevention programs, school and workplace health initiatives, and community-wide campaigns are investments that save lives, reduce long-term healthcare costs, and protect Curaçao’s future. Let’s to act now, reducing suffering, protecting families, and lowering the cost to society before more lives are changed forever.
