New health programme to combat diabetes launched

Southern Governor Shaikh Khalifa bin Ali bin Khalifa Al Khalifa yesterday inaugurated a programme aimed at combating diabetes. The event  was attended by Supreme Council for Health (SCH) President Lieutenant-General Dr Shaikh Mohammed bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, Health Minister Faeqa Al Saleh and other senior officials. Officials representing the Ministry of Health, the Southern Governorate, Bapco and the Bahrain Diabetes Society also attended the inaugural ceremony which was held at the Bapco Hall in Awali.

Shaikh Khalifa bin Ali bin Khalifa Al Khalifa also inaugurated an exhibition, which was held on the sidelines of the launch ceremony, showcasing the ministry of health, universities and schools. Shaikh Khalifa stressed the importance of launched key health projects that benefit all social categories, hailing development achievements in the sector. The population of Bahrain suffers from one of the highest prevalence rates of diabetes in the world.

Currently, around 15 per cent of the population suffer from diabetes, with the illness causing five percent of deaths in Bahrain. Diabetes is a metabolic disease which is caused by abnormal insulin secretion that regulates glucose use by the cell for energy. The result is a high glucose in the blood leading to damage to the blood vessels supplying main organs and tissues like the kidney, eye, nerves and the heart.

There are two major types of diabetes. In Type 1 (formerly called juvenile-onset or insulin-dependent) diabetes, the body completely stops producing any insulin. People with Type 1 diabetes must take daily insulin injections to survive. This form of diabetes usually develops in children or young adults, but can occur at any age and it is genetically predetermined. Type 2 (formerly called adult-onset or non insulin-dependent) diabetes results when the body doesn’t produce enough insulin and/or is unable to use insulin properly.

This form of diabetes usually occurs in people who are older, overweight, and have a family history of diabetes, although today it is increasingly occurring in younger people, particularly adolescents. It is a disease of lifestyle associated with the obesity epidemic. According to the International Diabetes Federation, five countries among the six highest diabetes prevalence rates in the world are Gulf States countries, including Bahrain which is ranked the fifth.

The seriousness of the problem is that 50 per cent of cases are unaware that they have the disease but even those diagnosed with diabetes are identified after years of the disease with no symptoms. This is a silent disease and most patients have no symptoms and this underscores the need for early screening for those at risk of the disease, according to experts. It is estimated that diabetes prevalence will increase by more than two fold in Bahrain in the next two decades.