The King Abdul Aziz National Guard Medical City in Riyadh is to launch Sunday a diabetes awareness campaign titled: “Working Together to Protect our Children and Youth from Diabetes”. The event is being held in tandem with World Diabetes Day, a week-long series of worldwide events centered on Nov. 14, and has prompted to voice their concerns at the rise in the number of diabetics in the Kingdom. “The rates of increase are very worrying,” said Dr. Abdul Aziz Al-Towaim, Head Dept Endocrinology and Pediatric Diabetes at the Medical City. Al-Towaim attributed the increase in diabetes' rates to the high rise in population and the change in food habits and lifestyle. Al-Towaim said 14 to 25 percent of Gulf nationals suffer from the disease, very high percentage compared to the number of inhabitants in the region. In 1980, the number of diabetics in the Kingdom represented 5 percent of the total population. That number has now jumped to 24 percent, a figure which Al-Towaim describes as “very alarming.” Similar campaigns to create awareness about diabetes have also been held in Dammam and Jeddah, while in Taif construction work has begun on a SR5 million diabetic center to reduce pressure on diabetes and endocrinology clinics in the region's hospitals. – Okaz/SG __
