Riyadh, the Arab medical capital, shall host the GCC Regional Conference on Diabetes Economics during the period from 22-24/11/1428, being 3 to 5 Nov, 2007, said Dr. Tawfeeq A. Khoja, the Director General of the Executive Bureau of the GCC Council of Health Ministers.
He said the conference will be convened in coordination between the Executive Bureau of the GCC Council of Health Ministers, WHO East Mediterranean Office, and King Faisal Specialized Hospital. It is hoped that the conference, which will be attended by a host of international, regional, and local specialists, will yield initiatives which will highly affect the policies of controlling the disease.
"The changes in life patterns occurring due to the high living standards in the GCC countries have imposed great challenges", he said. "They led to prevalence of such chronic diseases as diabetes, which is spreading in the form of an epidemic, thus imposing great danger at both national and Gulf levels".
He said the conference will cast light on a number of issues including the international and regional challenges, the costs of caring diabetes patients, payment and compensation for ensuring ideal care to diabetes patients, establishing a regional alliance for combating and preventing diabetes, structural care of diabetes patients, simulation models of diabetes economics, and the policies and plans of the Executive Bureau of the GCC Council of Health Ministers.
The conference will include a workshop on the main principles of diabetes economics, in addition to a women workshop for enabling women to play an effective role in treating diabetes. It will discuss the burden of diabetes and the challenges it represents to health systems and governments. The new initiatives of boosting health and providing effective care in light of the costs incurred will also discussed. The program also includes some important issues to be discussed by prominent international experts and specialists in diabetes and health economics.
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.