The popular TV show “Salamatak” (Arabic for “your safety”) will be aired in the Gulf from June next year following a decision taken by health ministers at the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

Health Ministry spokesman Khalid Al-Mirghalani told Arab News Thursday: “The TV show is an awareness program aired throughout the Gulf region to educate people on healthy lifestyle, warn them of the hazards of diseases and advise them about preventive measures against diseases.”

The keep-good-health messages, he said, would be portrayed through plays and episodes on state television in the Gulf countries.

He said the program will focus on noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in the region and pointed out that chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension are on the increase. “Unless we take some interest in preventing such diseases, we may see more and more patients suffering from such maladies in the region,” he noted.

The spokesman said the program is designed to introduce health plans to benefit people in the region and lamented the fact that lack of physical exercise, consuming excessive food, salt and sweets, besides smoking, were contributory factors for NCDs.

Spelling out details of the incidence of some diseases, he said that diabetes was prevalent among 28 percent of people who are above the age of 30, 21 percent of them suffer from hypertension and the mortality rate among them was 22 percent.

Around 25 percent of the 20,000 Home Healthcare Program (HHP) patients suffer from NCDs such as diabetes, cardiac and renal diseases, while 23 percent suffer from paralytic stroke and neural diseases.

A recent NCB report said that by 2015, the Kingdom’s population would reach an estimated 31.69 million. The growth rate of Saudi nationals would continue to rise, while the proportion of expatriates would increase at a decelerated rate in comparison to previous influxes spurred by economic booms.

The significance of this demographic shift is that Saudis have developed a predisposition to lifestyle diseases that will translate into an expensive medical profile requiring complex treatment in the long term. This will increase demand for enhanced medical facilities.

The number of Saudis past the retirement age of 60 will grow by 27 percent by 2015, the report said, adding that this age group will account for approximately 4.7 percent of the total population in 2015, or 1,367,303 individuals, an increase from the current 4.4 percent.

Discussing the UN General Assembly’s Political Declaration on the Prevention and Control of NCDs, the GCC ministers of health, who met in Muscat in 2012, urged the countries to develop a regional strategy to address ailments like diabetes, cardiovascular, cancer and chronic respiratory disease.

The strategy outlined a plan to be put into action the commitments agreed upon in September 2011 in the UN General Assembly’s political declaration on NCDs.

NCDs cause more than 60 percent of all deaths in GCC countries and are caused by shared risk factors like tobacco use, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity.







According to Dr. Ala Alwan, World Health Organization (WHO) regional director-elect of the Eastern Mediterranean Region, up to 50 percent of people suffering from these diseases in Gulf countries die before the age of 60.

This initiative launched by the GCC should be a major landmark in stopping premature death, he said.

Dr. Tawfiq Khoja, director-general of the GCC Health Ministers Executive Office, said that the strategic goal behind the TV show is to raise awareness on the spread of diseases, including awareness on the dangers of various types of physiological and social diseases that affect individuals and families as a whole.