19.6 % of UAE residents suffer from diabetes

By PMA RASHEED 

9 Nov 2010, The Gulf Today

IN wake of statistics that reveal that about 19.6 per cent of the UAE residents suffer from diabetes, the health ministry has prepared a comprehensive action plan to combat the disease and to build up a health conscious diabetes-free generation.

The strategy plan to fight diabetes will provide complete medical care for the patients, especially to protect residents in their tender ages. Cases of type II diabetes among residents has reportedly shot up alarmingly in recent years, indicated a senior health official.

Dr Mahmood Fikri, executive director for Health Policies at the MoH, said that the action plan will ensure latest medicines and development of specialised medical centres to cater to the needs of the diabetics in the country.

“The ministry also will establish a specialised centre for scientific, genetic and epidemiological researches in the field of diabetes,” he added.

Chairman of the National Diabetes Committee quoted the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) statistics, which said that the UAE ranks as the first Gulf country and second country in the world in terms of prevalence of diabetes.

“The rate of diabetes among the residents is increasing and currently it has been estimated at 19.6 per cent,” he revealed.

The national diabetes prevention committee at the Ministry of Health (MoH) on Monday introduced prevention methods and treatment for diabetes for students across the country in tandem with the Ministry of Education (MoE).

Around 150 teaching and nursing staff from the educational and medical districts all over the UAE participated in a workshop organised by the MoH at Dubai Women College to equip them with strategies to protect school students from diabetes. The session focused on health education and scientific basis for nutrition for diabetic students and the prescription of physical activity for patients with diabetes.

Dr Fikri elaborated, “The preventive programmes to be applied at schools are expected to be witnessing positive results among the student community to change their food habits and practices and protect them from obesity, which increases the dangers of type 2 diabetes and future cardiac disorders.”

“The action plan includes legislations and programmes to fight diabetes with healthy meals and physical education to protect them from chronic diseases due to diabetes,” he pointed out.

“The most common form of diabetes in the region is Type II diabetes, so school nurses, teachers, students and parents are advised to adopt the methods of diet and exercise to tackle the disease,” said Dr Fikri.