RIYADH: The Kingdom will solicit foreign expertise to intensify its national program to combat diabetes, Dr. Khalid Al-Zahrani, deputy minister of health for preventive medicine, said following the first meeting of the National Committee for Prevention of Diabetes here recently.
“We have requested a special team from the US Center for Disease Control to help us in our efforts to control the disease which has affected 24 percent of the population above 30 years,” Al-Zahrani told newsmen, adding that diabetes is found among 12 to 15 percent of the entire population in the Kingdom.
“The increased number of diabetic patients is mainly due to change in lifestyles and new food habits,” Al-Zahrani said, referring to Type 2 diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes is caused mainly by the unhealthy combination of high sugar intake (which includes high intake of carbohydrates that convert to sugars during digestion) and lack of exercise. Obesity is a common characteristic of Type 2 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes may be caused by genetic pre-dispositions and can affect children and adults of normal weight.
It is Type 2 diabetes that has become a major health crisis in countries where populations have shifted to more sedentary lifestyles coupled with increasing intakes of the sugar and carbohydrates found in processed and fast foods.
The deputy minister also said that a working paper is being drafted to enlist the cooperation of ministries such as commerce, education, higher education and municipal affairs and General Presidency for Youth Welfare in the national effort.
Al-Zahrani added that the ministry has appointed 20 goodwill ambassadors to carry out the campaign in different parts of the Kingdom. “These male and female ambassadors were given an intensive training in the relevant field and they are being sent to schools and community centers to propagate their task,” he said.
Besides 20 goodwill ambassadors from all parts of the Kingdom, Dr. Obaid Al-Obaid, deputy minister of health for planning and development, said foreign experts from the World Health Organization will also be consulted.
“The fight against diabetes and its complications is one of the biggest problems faced by the Ministry of Health,” Al-Obaid said, pointing out that the ministry has been making continuous efforts to prevent and treat the disease through a 10-year program.
As part of the national campaign, Al-Zahrani said the Kingdom is to host an international conference titled “Diabetes and the High Cost of Treatment” on Nov. 3-5.
