The American Samoa Diabetes Coalition says one of the big setbacks in the Health Department's diabetes prevention and awareness programs is reduced funding.
Lawmaker Larry Sanitoa, who is also a member of the coalition, says the diabetes program used to get two hundred thousand US dollars a year from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
But now it only it only gets 50 thousand dollars and there's no local funding.
Mr Sanitoa says the limited funds make it very difficult for health officials to carry out diabetes awareness and prevention programs.
The coalition last week predicted that in ten years it will cost more than 122 million dollars to treat dialysis patients in the territory.
