Awareness call as Bahrain marks World Diabetes Day

TDT | Manama                

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Reported by Zahra Ayaz  

The Kingdom yesterday joined the rest of the world in commemorating World Diabetes Day 2022, under the theme “access to diabetes education”.

The day is observed every year on November 14. World Diabetes Day provides an opportunity to raise awareness of diabetes as a global public health issue and what needs to be done, collectively and individually, for better prevention, diagnosis and management of the condition.

This year’s theme, ‘access to diabetes education’, underpins the larger multi-year theme of access to care and highlights the solutions to scaling-up access to diabetes medicines and care. Speaking to The Daily Tribune, Dr Rabaa Alhajeri, leading diabetologist and Board Member of Bahrain Diabetes Society, said, “The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) reports that about 537 million people worldwide have diabetes.

The number of cases has been increasing over the past few years; the IDF predicts 783 million people will have diabetes by 2045, an increase of 45pc and within the Gulf region more than 15pc of the population suffers from the disease.”

“The number of patients is increasing day by day, and after observation, the result shows that the number of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes has increased post pandemic. The main reason being changes in lifestyle, mostly from the part of adults and younger children. Many have been increasingly consuming junk food coupled with no exercise and lacking in outside activities.

“Most obese children experience symptoms, such as increased neck darkness, which increases the likelihood of Type 2 diabetes. I would advise society to begin by controlling their diets, introduce regular exercises, and gain knowledge about diabetes and its causes.

“We are raising awareness among the people by holding events such as community screenings, where you can identify HBA1C, and pre-diabetes, and get a free consultant to help you prevent diabetes.

The three main things to focus on to ensure your health are to keep your blood pressure, cholesterol, and diabetes under control all the time,” she added.

“World Diabetes Day across the world will cover all the issues ranging from championing the priorities of people living with diabetes in advocacy to Global Diabetes Compact, which drives efforts globally to reduce the risk of diabetes and ensure access to treatment and care,” says the World Health Organisation.

The Ministry of Health has paid great attention to prevention of diabetes to reduce its complication through awareness programmes, training of medical staff from doctors and nurses, improving treatment methods and providing comprehensive care for diabetes for providing specialised clinics and health centers.