developing gestational diabetes (gdm) which poses significant risk to both mother and foetus as well as increased neonatal risks, reports dr sumaiya adam, consultant in obstetrics & gynaecology at the university of pretoria and a speaker at the medical obstetrics conference on diabetes in pregnancy. but what is particularly concerning, reveals kengne,is that over two thirds of diabetes cases in africa remain undiagnosed and therefore, untreated. in cases where treatment is received, the disease has often progressed too far down the line and the quality of care is not optimal. adam agrees that under and undiagnosed diabetes incidents in pregnant women is a problem leading to longterm negative health outcomes in children including childhood obesity, type 2 dm and metabolic syndrome. what is needed, argues kengne, is better access to diagnosis and treatment. to better manage diabetes, he said, requires both an improvement in the current knowledge of how to postpone the disease, and better still, to prevent the diseases from taking hold. “at this stage, we are working on the first study dealing with prevention in a south african context,”kengne reveals. sadly, however, little has been done in terms of education and prevention on the continent overall. that said, kengne cautions against taking a negative attitude, saying that there is no reason why this situation cannot be changed. he cites the recent introduction of a sugar tax in south africa as a successful example of what can be done to reduce