Dr Abdullah al-Hamaq
By Joseph Varghese
Staff Reporter
In what could be termed as significant achievement in its fight against diabetes, Qatar has substantially progressed in global ranking in terms of prevalence of the disease, according to the latest ranking of the global diabetes federation.
This was revealed by a top official of Qatar Diabetes Association (QDA) on Monday at a press conference to reveal the future activities of Action on Diabetes.
Dr Abdullah al-Hamaq, managing director of QDA, emphasised that it was a remarkable achievement in the initiatives to counter diabetes in the country.
"According to the 7th edition of the Diabetes Atlas of International Diabetes Federation, Qatar is at the 10th position in the prevalence of diabetes. Earlier we were ranked 7th globally.
"It shows that our efforts are paying rich dividends. This will give us more energy and motivation in our efforts to contain and counter this dreadful disease. We are going ahead with many initiatives and diabetes awareness programmes to reach out to the larger public in the country."
The official also pointed out that most of the GCC countries are in the list of high prevalence of diabetes according to the latest ranking.
"Saudi Arabia has the highest prevalence rate in the MENA region while Egypt has the highest number of people suffering from diabetes. Countries such as Kuwait and Bahrain are among the countries with high prevalence of diabetes."
Herluf Thomsen, Action on Diabetes senior project manager at Dutch drug firm NovoNordisk, pointed out that 2014 has been the best one in Qatar in its fight against diabetes.
He stressed that there have been significant achievements in the last three years following efforts by Action on Diabetes.
"This public-private partnership to fight diabetes is a very unique one in the world itself. During the entire project in three years, 22,000 people were screened for diabetes while 14,000 were screened in 2014 alone. At this rate we might even be able to screen the entire people of the country, given the size of population."
However, he cautioned that concrete efforts are necessary to raise diabetes awareness among the population of the country.
"Nearly a quarter of the population might turn diabetic by 2030 unless they are educated well and follow clear healthy practices such as healthy eating habits and physical activities."
So far, some 22,618 schoolchildren were educated on healthy lifestyle and 1,092 healthcare professionals were provided with diabetic education, he added.
