CVS, Howard University partner to provide mobile diabetes screening

WASHINGTON In an effort to help residents discover and manage diabetes, CVS is working in conjunction with Howard University Diabetes Treatment Center and the Department of Health to offer a three-month, mobile diabetes screening and treatment program throughout the Washington, D.C. area.

The mobile unit will be at the CVS location at 845 Bladensburg Road N.E. on July 22 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. This is one of more than 20 scheduled outreach efforts. Between now and the end of September, the Center plans to test hundreds of residents in five of the city’s Wards.

Medical technicians will screen dozens of residents in each location for high blood sugar and doctors will treat those with elevated levels in the Center’s mobile unit and will give them prescriptions for free personal testing equipment through CVS.

Diabetes affects nearly 1-in-10 Americans and, of those who have it, 1-in-4 do not know they suffer from the disease. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the number of Americans afflicted with the disease is up 13 percent from just three years earlier.

Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure. Diabetics are twice as likely to have heart attacks and strokes as others. Diabetes causes 12,000 to 24,000 causes of blindness each year. About 82,000 people will lose a limb to diabetes this year.