'Easi-check' a new hand-held diabetes monitoring system and the first to be manufactured in the Caribbean, is now available in Jamaica.

Endorsed by Calypsonian and long-term diabetes sufferer, The Mighty Sparrow, Trinidad-based pharmaceutical company, Pharmaco, hopes its product will catch on in Jamaica as a cheap and convenient way to monitor blood sugar levels.

Pharmaco claims that Easi-Check takes 10 seconds to test with storage available for 450 results.

The product has already been used in screening programmes by the Diabetes Association of Jamaica. According to outreach officer, Dr. Owen Bernard, the system which is distributed locally by Medi-Grace compares well with current alternatives.

"When we go on outreach we go and test 150 people sometimes so, with that volume, having the product and strips being so available is important to us," said Dr. Bernard. "Also any machine which is easy for patients to understand is welcome."

He said Easi-Check and similar products would enable more people to test themselves, and be more capable of taking control of their diabetes, and for others to learn if they have the disease.

The launch, on Wednesday night at the Four Seasons Hotel in New Kingston, comes just a few weeks before National Diabetes Week on November 13. Currently over 300,000 Jamaicans over the age of 15 years old have diabetes. Fifty per cent are not aware they have the disease.

Diabetes is the second highest cause of death in Jamaica.

Already available elsewhere in the Caribbean and also in Europe, as well as other parts of the world, Easi-Check has also just become available in South Africa, according to John Anderson, Pharmaco sales manager. The company also plans to launch similar test kits for both pregnancy and HIV/AIDS next year.