Press Review of the week

14th November 2011

While dietary awareness gains strength among Gulf countries, the 5th Edition of the International Diabetes Federation Atlas, published today, reported that “in 2011, 32.8 million people or 9.1% of the adult population have diabetes in MENA countries. This number will almost double to 60 million in less than 20 years. The explosion of diabetes in the region is mainly due to type 2 diabetes. The prevalence (%) in the region for younger age groups is substantially higher than the global average. A further 24 million people, or 6.7% of the population, are at high risk of diabetes from impaired glucose tolerance (IGT). This number is expected to nearly double by 2030 as well.” 

Changing habits is a urgent need.

A few years ago, not many people cared about the food’s fat content. But now, growing obesity and related health problems are prompting people to choose fat-free foods and fatty food products are gradually disappearing from the market

As a consequence, health expenditures are expected to reach $125 billion by 2015 in MENA region, owing GulfNews, compared to $65.6 billion (4.3 per cent of GDP) in 2009. As we underlined in a recent post, health care market in the region will grow for two factors :

  • the population, currently at around 214 million, is projected to reach 233 million by 2015 and 272 million by 2025,
  • the health care infrastructure in the region is far below that of the developed economies with a shortage of about 200,000 hospital beds and it lacks adequately qualified medical professionals.

Diabetes and Obesity are the new black plagues of MENA. In Egypt, the new revolution is the war against weight, reported Los Angeles Times : Egyptian women are among the most overweight in the world, while 40% of the people live on less than $2 a day. “Low-income nations now face a double burden as hunger and obesity coexist within the same communities and even families.”As said Margaret Chan, WHO director-general, “The world certainly needs to feed its population of nearly 7 billion people. But it does not need to feed them junk food.”