Bahrain joins world nations for “access to diabetes care”

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain today joins world nations in celebrating World Diabetes Day, which falls on the 14th of November every year.

Access to diabetes care: If Not Now, When? is the theme of this year’s celebration.

The day throws light on the fact that a century after its discovery, insulin and other fundamental components of diabetes care remains beyond the reach of many who need them.

Marking the occasion, Dr Abdulwahab Mohammed, Chairman of Primary Health Care Board of Trustees at the Supreme Council of Health, said the day provides an opportunity to raise awareness among citizens to adopt a healthier lifestyle to combat the increasing diabetes cases in Bahrain.

Citing the 2018-”19 national survey, he said 15% of the respondents covered had diabetes.

“This is high and calls for intensifying efforts to raise awareness among citizens as Diabetes is a major cause of blindness, kidney failure, heart attacks, stroke and lower limb amputations.”

“Regular exercise and healthy eating should be practised at an early age, especially as diabetes is increasing among children,” he said, adding that an average of 80 to 85% type 1 cases are recorded in children annually.

He was inaugurating the World Diabetes Day Conference organised in cooperation with Novo Nordisk.

Bourn Anderson, Representative of the Embassy of Denmark in Bahrain, and Dr Ahmed Majdy, Head of Patient Support and Public Relations Department at Novo Nordisk, doctors, specialists and academics were present in-person and virtually.

Dr Jalila Al-Sayed, the CEO of the Primary Health Care Centres, said that the fight against diabetes in Bahrain had acquired a new challenge in the form of the Coronavirus pandemic.

“Diabetes can generally weaken the efficiency of our immune system, and therefore reducing the number of cases can reduce those challenges too.”

The National Committee for the Control of Noncommunicable Chronic Diseases develop strategies, plans and programmes to reduce the spread of chronic diseases, especially diabetes, in the Kingdom.

New figures from the 10th Edition of the IDF Diabetes Atlas reveal that 537 million adults around the globe are living with diabetes.

Meaning, one in ten adults are now living with diabetes.