By Joseph Varghese/Staff Reporter

 

Kulluna for a Healthy Heart’, one of Qatar’s programmes to promote cardiac health, was launched at The Landmark, the third location for the campaign, yesterday.

The drive, which started at the beginning of Ramadan, is already going on at City Center as well as at The Mall.

Dr Khalid Abdulnoor Saifeldeen,  head of the Kulluna campaign as well as the head of Hamad International Training Centre ( HITC), said that once the campaign was over there would be some other activities soon. “May be the presence of the booths will end by Ramadan but the essence will continue. We are planning for something different, something new and something exciting.”

As heart disease is a leading cause of death in Qatar, the campaign aims to promote cardiac health and prevent heart diseases. There has been an alarming increase in the number of  heart attacks and heart failures in the country during the past two years.

Dr. Saifeldeen, said that the campaign had been getting tremendous response from every section of the society.

He said: “Every day we see hundreds visiting the Kulluna booths on both the locations and with the third location becoming operational, it is going to benefit many more.”

He highlighted a personal experience two days ago at a Kulluna booth  where a 21-year-old pregnant lady was diagnosed with gestational diabetes which she was not aware of. Similarly, another 24-year-old man, who was obese, was diagnosed with high cholesterol as well as diabetes which he could not even believe.

Dr Saifeldeen said : “People generally take things for granted and think that they are in fine health. But reality shows that it is not so. As we had suspected a number of people are diagnosed for various metabolic diseases and the number is really high.”

Dr Saifeldeen highlighted that the support from ConocoPhillips and Hamad Medical Corporation has been the biggest motivating factor in carrying out the campaign. “Without their support it would have been nearly impossible to continue the campaign. We are grateful for their continuous patronage.”

 

 

 

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