Manama, The Kingdom of Bahrain will tomorrow join in the other nations in observing the World Diabetes, which falls on November 14.
A ceremony was held today at Princess Sabeeka bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa Park in Awal to mark the global observance Day, being held this year under the theme “Access to Diabetes Care: If not now, When?”.
The event was co-organised by the Ministry of Health, Bahrain Diabetes Society, Bapco and the Southern Governorate.
Supreme Council for Health (SCH) President Lieutenant General Dr. Shaikh Mohammed bin Abdulla Al Khalifa patronized the event, in the presence of Health Minister Faeqa bint Said Al Saleh.
Addressing the ceremony, Dr. Shaikh Mohammed stressed Bahrain’s keenness on tackling the diseases which represents one of the public health challenges that affect people and societies and takes a heavy toll on the health sector and development efforts.
“Over the past years, the prevalence of diabetes has doubled worldwide, with more than 537 million people are currently living with the disease, and most of these cases are type II, which can be largely prevented through physical activity and a healthy balanced diet”, he said.
In the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region, diabetes irepresents a major public health issue as it features on list of chronic noncommunicable diseases, affecting 55 million of the adult population aged 20 to 79 years.
“According to the 2018 National Health Survey2018, the incidence of diabetes hits 15% of the adult population”, said Dr. Shaikh Mohammed, adding that the proportion of people with diabetes is expected to rise to about a quarter of the region’s population in the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council by 2030.
He pointed out that diabetes is one of the main causes of diseases of the heart, blood vessels, eyes, kidneys and feet, which causes premature death and disability.
He stressed the detrimental impact of the disease, which causes health care costs to increase, and impedes the ability of countries to achieve the health-related sustainable development goals and achieve the third goal, that is the reduction of premature deaths from noncommunicable diseases by a third by 2030 compared to 2015.
Health Minister Faeqa bint Said Al Saleh also addressed the ceremony, stressing the importance of the 2021 edition theme which aims to enhance social awareness, promote prevention and help diabetic people mitigate complications.
Source: Bahrain News Agency