WILLEMSTAD – Diabetes is leading to severe health complications and increasing costs for Curaçao’s healthcare system, with hundreds of patients requiring life-saving treatments each year.
Between 2020 and 2025, more than 300 people annually had to undergo dialysis because their kidneys stopped functioning properly due to diabetes. Dialysis is required when the kidneys can no longer filter waste from the blood, a condition that often results from long-term damage caused by the disease.
Diabetes is also responsible for a significant number of amputations. In 2024 alone, 58 people lost part of their foot or leg due to diabetes-related complications. This means that, on average, more than one person per week required an amputation.
Treating these complications places a heavy financial burden on the healthcare system. Dialysis care alone cost more than 16 million guilders last year. In addition, hyperbaric treatments used to treat severe diabetic wounds cost more than 200,000 guilders.
Doctors are also increasingly concerned about the rise of diabetes among children. Over the past five years, the number of young patients treated in the hospital has more than doubled. This trend raises concerns because early onset of diabetes significantly increases the likelihood of serious health complications later in life.
Approximately one in five adults on Curaçao is living with diabetes. According to the Curaçao Medical Center (CMC), the disease is placing growing pressure not only on families but also on the island’s healthcare system.