HRH Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, the Deputy Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, has issued the High Approval No. 4714/MB, dated 23/05/1428H, regarding convening the GCC regional conference on diabetes economics in Riyadh during the period from 3 to 5 Nov, 2007, said Dr. Tawfeeq A. Khoja, the Director General of the Executive Office of the GCC Council of Health Ministers.
He said reference in the telegram have been made to the telegram of the Minister of Health Dr. Hamad bin Abdullah Al-Mane on the intention of the Executive Office of the GCC Council of Health Ministers to organize a regional GCC conference on diabetes economics. The conference will be convened in coordination with WHO East Mediterranean Office and King Faisal Specialized Hospital. It is hoped that the conference, which will be attended by a number of international, regional, and local specialists, will yield initiatives which will highly affect the policies of combating the disease.
"The changes in life patterns occurring due to the high living standards in the Gulf have imposed great challenges", he said. "They led to prevalence of chronic diseases such as diabetes, which is spreading in the form of an epidemic, thus imposing great danger on both national and gulf levels".
He said the conference will cast light on the burden of diabetes and the challenges it represents to health systems. It will concentrate on the new trends of combating the disease and ways of providing effective care.
He referred to the joint declaration on diabetes signed by the GCC ministers of health at their 63rd conference held last month in Geneva at the sidelines of the meetings of WHO General Assembly, which called for giving priority to combating diabetes. He said effective political support and sufficient financial and human resources are required for applying relative policies, plans, and programs. He stressed the importance of providing all support for ensuring commitment to the targets set by the World Health Organization through reducing the disease's annual mortality rate by 2% during the coming ten years; applying national strategies aiming at confronting adjustable risk factors such as eating unhealthy food, less physical activity and smoking; applying the concepts of health boosting and community care; supporting research on diabetes epidemiology, economics, risk factors, and burden; integrative treatment and care within the activities of primary health care; enlightening on adjustable risk factors which are the basic causes of chronic diseases, especially diabetes; establishment of a high national council for combating diabetes; considering diabetes combating as a national task requiring participation of all government and community authorities; using the WHO document on "Chronic Diseases – A Vital Investment" as a general guide for applying national strategies for combating diabetes; and activating "The International Strategy for Nutritional System, physical activity, and Health".
Finally Dr. Khoja extended his gratitude to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin abdul Aziz, the Deputy Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques HRH Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, and the Minister of Health Dr. Hamad bin Abdullah Al-Mane for the support they provided for convening the conference in the Kingdom.