Saudi Gazette report Sometimes, a small revolution takes place affecting a great number of lives, but goes completely unnoticed by the majority of the population. A new plastic box smaller than a standard cigarette box is one such device that could have far reaching effects on the lives of thousands, perhaps millions of people and in the long run, the human capital and thus the economy of Saudi Arabia. Diabetes is currently the fastest growing debilitating disease in the world. In the UAE for example, one out of five people aged between 20 to 79 live with diabetes, while a similar percentage of population is at risk of developing it. The UAE ranks second highest worldwide for diabetes prevalence followed by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Kuwait. A study, published in the journal Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, estimated the prevalence of diabetes for adults aged 20-79 for every country in the world. The tiny Pacific island nation of Nauru came top in 2010 with 31 percent. UAE totalled 19 percent and Saudi Arabia with 17 percent, which in numbers in the Kingdom's case are 2,065,300 people diagnosed with the disease in 2010. In 2011, 32.8 million people or 9.1 percent of the adult population of the Middle East and North Africa region had diabetes, a number projected to almost double to 60 million in less than 20 years. The expansion of diabetes in the region is mainly due to type 2 diabetes. The percentage in the region for younger age groups is significantly higher than the global average. A further 24 million people, or 6.7 percent of the population, are at high risk of diabetes from impaired glucose tolerance. This number is expected to nearly double by 2030 as well. By far the largest contribution to the total number of children with type 1 diabetes comes from Saudi Arabia whose estimates account for almost a quarter of the region's total of 65,200. The causes of the condition are genetic and lifestyle. Type 1 is genetic and type 2 is more a genetic potential that can be triggered by lifestyle in later life, according to David Thrower, CEO of Asante Solutions Thrower, who was on a recent visit to Jeddah, said with such large percentages of the Kingdom's population burdened with the disease — unless it is managed properly — the impact on the lives of diabetics can be profound. A regimen of injections and close observance of food intake, exercise and an almost neurotic vigilance to regular injections of insulin to control the disease often impairs a normal lifestyle to a great degree. Thrower has what he thinks is not the cure to the condition, but the means to reduce the damage to a diabetic's life to a minimum. “We approached the problem when designing this device from a radically different perspective,” he told Saudi Gazette, adding, “Our vision was to reverse the relationship of the diabetic with the condition. “Living with the disease rather than living the disease.” His device is a radically different portable insulin pump that continuously administers the drug through the day from a small device attached to the diabetic's body. Pumps per sear not new, he said, but they are extremely expensive, cumbersome to load with insulin and attach to the wearer, tricky to re-charge with insulin and often difficult to program for the individual. The Asante Pearl device addressed all these challenges. The results are impressive. The device itself is modular, the pump unit costing about 10 percent of the price of currently available devices. “We kept the capital costs very low so that physicians would be more likely to include it in their portfolio. “The device contains a modular 300 insulin unit sterile cartridge which can be fitted in seconds, no measuring or exposure to air of insulin,” he said. The wearer can program the device's computer to deliver the appropriate dose over the day. “We kept this operation very simple indeed,” he said. The idea was to make learnable by all, both young or old. “We found that over 95 percent of users could load, attach and program the Pearl pump after one training session,” he said. This he thought of great psychological benefit as it reduced enormously the time spent in a diabetic's day managing his condition. “Really, managing the condition now takes seconds out of a day, not hours. It's part of our vision of the diabetic controlling the condition, not the other way round.” Apart from the benefit to the individual, broadening the scope of the application that the knock on benefits to a country's social health were huge. “If the working population who have diabetes spend hours a day managing their condition, millions of productive man-hours get wasted. “This has a real effect on the economic health of a country,” he said. “The Pearl frees people up to lead a full and active life, reduces the possibility of infection from old-fashioned management techniques, such as multiple injections daily, and brings huge psychological benefits to the user.” Over the three decades, according to Maha Taysir Barakat, endocrinologist at Medical & Research Directorat College London Diabetes Centre, Abu Dhabi, major social and economic changes have occurred in the majority of the countries in the MENA region. Progressive urbanization, decreased infant mortality and increase in life expectancy and a radical change of diet that includes a high percentage of carbohydrates oils, fats and sugar. With this rapid development, especially among the more wealthy oil-producing countries, came significant changes involving poor nutrition, decreased physical activity, increased obesity and smoking. There is no doubt that public education and lifestyle changes would have a very positive effect on slowing or even reversing the spread of diabetes. Until then however, there is now a real opportunity for the diabetic to manage the condition, rather than the condition run the victim.
