Press review of the week
September 19th 2011
Ten years after a AIDS summit at the UN, today, the United Nations set off alarm bells ringing on a new plague: chronic diseases (cancer, diabetes, heart and respiratory ailments) that represent the four main causes of death in the world according to the WashingtonPost.
This high level meeting of UN senior experts on the “Prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases (or NCDs) on a global scale” aims to determine a prevention strategy to fight these noncommunicable diseases, particularly among vulnerable populations, based on the current scientific data. The UN report urges the adoption of multisectoral partnerships and the strengthening of primary healthcare services.
Although it is disappointing that the Arab scientific community is largely absent from this summit -perhaps more worried about the crucial question of Palestine recognition at UN, our 12/09 press review pointed out the strong commitment of GCC & Middle-East countries to develop primary healthcare centers to prevent chronic diseases.
In Jordan, according to the JordanTimes, a new study leaded by Pr. K. Ajlouni, confirmed the rise of diabetes in the Hashemite Kingdom: 36 per cent of the population is diabetic and the diabetes accounts for 70 per cent of deaths. Health expenditures related to diabetes in the country reach near $850 million.
In ArabNews, Saudi Arabia, where the prevalence of diabetes is 25-35% according to studies, held a series of conference last 10-15 September on diabetes podiatry complications. The goal was to train health staff and professionals to diabetes prevention with real clinical cases.
On September 13d, during the 47th congress of European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) in Lisbon, a conference of the International Diabetes Federation bears us in mind this epidemic affects 366 million of people worldwide and kills one person every 7 seconds. It stresses the involvement of a very early prevention across local primary healthcare services.
