Healthcare | Thursday 22 October, 2015 4:30 am |

Health Minister Khalid Al-Falih said on Tuesday that the Gulf countries must make concerted efforts to combat diabetes and obesity in the region.

The minister made this recommendation while inaugurating the International Conference on Countering Diabesity in Gulf countries at the King Faisal Conference Hall in Riyadh. 
Following the inaugural ceremony, the minister also opened a medical exhibition within the same premises. The exhibition, which will run concurrently with the conference, will be attended by organizations from the public and private sector who are engaged in the treatment of diabetes and obesity. 
The three-day conference aims to review the latest scientific findings in the treatment of obesity and diabetes, and seeks to highlight the impact of the current shortage of qualified professionals with knowledge on the disease, as well as the role of technology in knowledge management and distance education, and the role of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states in fighting diabetes and obesity.
The conference also aims to identify the economic burden of the obesity and diabetes, which is shouldered by the GCC governments, and seeks to explore the role of schools and educational institutions in the prevention of such issues.

Others who spoke at the opening ceremony were Dr. Tawfiq bin Ahmed Khoja, director-general of the Executive Board of the GCC Health Ministers Council and Dr. Saud Al-Hasan, director of the Saudi Society for Family and Community Medicine, who is also the president of the conference.
Speaking further, Al-Falih said there should be an effective public awareness campaign launched to combat the problem in the region. 
“The lifestyles of people need to be changed for the better, and children should be taught at the school level about the hazards of the diseases,” the minister said. 

He also pointed out that the prevalence of diabetes in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) ranged between 15 and 20 percent of the total population. Regarding the matter, Dr. Al-Hassan said that the Kingdom currently occupies fifth place globally and third in the Gulf for obesity.
The minister noted that these diseases not only threaten human life, but also go beyond this to threaten state resources, imposing a critical economic burden. The global economy report indicates that under non-communicable diseases in 2011, the treatment of diabetes amounted to a cost of $500 billion, which is expected to increase to $750 billion by 2030.

Al-Falih also said that the conference seeks to develop a road map for the promotion of scientific studies to deal with diabetes and obesity in the Gulf States, hopefully creating a guide for relevant organizations as they seek to individually and collectively combat these diseases through research, awareness creation, prevention and treatment.
Adding to this, Dr. Khoja explained the problem needs be tackled at the school stage where children can be taught about the dangers of the diseases so that they develop good habits whilst they are young. 

Important to note in relation to this, is that 31 out of every 100 children in the Kingdom aged between 10 and 14 have been diagnosed with Type One Diabetes. The cost of treating patients amounts to $1,333 per person per year and, of the Kingdom’s $236 billion national budget for the year 2014, the Ministry of Health’s budget was $29 billion, of which $10 million — or 34 percent — was spent on the treatment of diabetes.