RIYADH, 2 October 2007 — The Ministry of Health announced it would begin a Kingdomwide campaign to raise awareness about the dangers, causes and treatments for diabetes, a growing health problem in Saudi Arabia. The new effort includes establishing a satellite channel devoted to educating people on preventing the pancreas-affecting disease.
“We have to take constructive steps to combat this disease which is becoming common among the locals and expatriates,” Dr. Khaled Al-Zahrani, deputy minister of health for preventive medicine, said in a statement to Arab News. “The increased number of diabetics is mainly due to the change in lifestyles and new food habits.”
The deputy minister added that the ministry would appoint 20 goodwill ambassadors to carry out the campaign in all the 22 health regions in the Kingdom. “These male and female ambassadors will be given intensive training and will be sent to schools and community centers to propagate their task,” said Zahrani.
As part of the campaign the ministry will host an international conference on diabetes and the high cost of treatment in November.
A separate conference for women will be arranged concurrently under the support of Princess Hassa bint Shalaan, wife of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah.
Saudi Arabia, where diabetes affects nearly 30 percent of the population, is one of 10 countries that have the highest number of diabetics in the world, according to the World Health Organization.
The Saudi government claims that it spends nearly SR5 billion annually to treat diabetes and related diseases across the country. Health Minister Dr. Hamad Al-Manie has warned that diabetes is becoming an epidemic in the Kingdom.
The majority of people suffering from diabetes in the Kingdom are women, especially those living in cities. There is a growing number of diabetes among Saudi children, too. As much as 52 percent of the Kingdom’s population is clinically overweight. Obesity is a key factor in causing Type 2 Diabetes.
“It’s spreading not only in Saudi Arabia but also in other Gulf countries,” Al-Manie said in an earlier statement. “Medical reports show that 15 to 20 percent of school children in the Kingdom are affected by diabetes without their knowledge,” the minister said.
Dr. Tawfik Khoja, director general of the Executive Board of Council of Health Ministers of Gulf Cooperation Council States, pointed out that the diabetic population in the six GCC countries increased to 333 million last year and that this would reach 370 million in 2025.
Diabetes is a pancreatic disease causing the organ to produce insufficient amounts of insulin, which is an important hormone for processing glucose into glycogen.
There are two types of diabetes: Type 1 Diabetes, which can be caused by infections of certain bacteria or viruses, exposure to food-borne toxins and feeding very young infants cow’s milk; and Type 2 Diabetes, caused by a combination of age, lack of exercise and obesity. In rare cases certain medicines and illnesses, as well as pregnancy, can cause the disease. Type 2 Diabetes is the type that is often associated with eating a lot of sweets, but it’s a misconception that the sugar itself causes the condition; consuming a lot of sweets causes obesity, a major factor in causing diabetes. Heredity is also a major cause of diabetes.
People who have diabetes much carefully monitor their sugar consumption as this - along with stress - exacerbates the condition and increases the chance of dangerous hypoglycemic attack. In extreme cases diabetes can cause blindness and even gangrene in extremities, such as the toes, due to the increased chances among diabetics in contracting peripheral arterial disease caused by atherosclerosis, especially as they grow older with the disease.
