The Diabetes National Committee at the Ministry of Health in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, and Sanofi Aventis organized a workshop for around 150 teaching and nursing staff at the educational and medical districts all over the UAE to fight diabetes under the title “Prevention Ways and Treatment from Diabetes among Students”.
The workshop which was organized for one day aims for disseminating health awareness of diabetes, its complications and dangers. It also supports health lifestyles to prevent the dissemination of diabetes among school students.
The workshop was attended by Dr. Salem Al Darmaki, Acting Director General at the Ministry of Health, Dr. Mahmood Fikri, Executive Director for Health Policies at the Ministry of Health and Chairman of the Diabetes Higher National Committee, Hassan Lootah, Director of Physical Education Department at the Ministry of Education, Dr. Mariam Al Matroushi, Director of Legislations Department and School Health Programs at the Ministry of Health and John Marc, Director General of Sanofi Aventis.
Dr. Mahmood Fikri, Executive Director for Health Policies at the Ministry of Health and Chairman of the Diabetes National Higher Committee, said: “Diabetes and other chronic diseases are one of the main health challenges in the world.
The World Health Organization called all the member states to celebrate the Word Diabetes Day and considered November 2009-2013 each year as the day for increasing awareness campaigns to encourage the community individuals and governments to fight diabetes.
It also called the governments to protect their communities from the dangers of diabetes through implementing prevention strategies and plans to include health awareness of diabetes, its prevention and care and ways of eliminating its complications’.
He explained that the World Health Organization Statistics indicate that the UAE ranks the first Gulf country and second country worldwide that has an increasing diabetes rate. About 19.6% of the residents have diabetes.
In this context, the World Health Organization considered the year 2009 as the year to fight diabetes in the UAE as part of its role to increase the society’s awareness of the dangers of the disease and eliminate its dissemination in the country.
Dr. Fikri emphasized that the Ministry also prepared an inclusive strategy plan to fight the disease through the efforts of the diabetes higher national committee in cooperation with local competent authorities.
Based on this strategy, the ministry’s action plan included comprehensive medical care for diabetes patients, latest medicines and specialized medical centers such as Rashid Center for Diabetes and Research that has been opened last June in Ajman, a new addition to the healthcare field in the UAE to satisfy the needs of the locals and residents and a leading center in the field of scientific, genetic and epidemiological researches.
“The activities also included a number of awareness campaigns, free medical tests in cooperation with several federal ministries as well as public and private authorities to motivate society members to fight diabetes and realize its dangers and ways of prevention and encourage the UAE society to change their lifestyles into healthy ones, decrease their love to fast food meals which lead to obesity and major causes for diabetes.
The health awareness and preventive programs applied at schools are considered the best programs due to their positive results on students to change their food habits and practices which may lead to obesity and overweight. It is known that obesity increases the dangers of type 2 diabetes and future heart diseases”, he elaborated.
The ministries of health and education organized an action plan to include legislations, programs and activities to fight diabetes in cooperation with its strategic partners to change the lifestyles of the community members such as healthy meals and physical education to protect them from chronic diseases such as diabetes and obesity based on the recommendations of the World Health Organization.
In cooperation with the Ministry of Education, Knowledge and Human Development Authority Dubai (KHDA) and Sanofi Aventis, the Ministry of Health also organized several training programs to increase the awareness of both nursing and teaching staff of protecting students from diabetes and obesity.
WAM