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CATHERINE W GICHUKI
DOHA
A new diabetes survey to establish the diabetes prevalence in Qatar will be conducted next year, according to a Ministry of Public Health official.
Speaking to media persons on the sidelines of the launch of new generation basal insulin, Tresiba, MoPH Director of Public Health Sheikh Dr Mohammed al Thani said the last survey was done in 2012 and established that the prevalence of the disease was 17 percent."The percentage of Qatari population with diabetes is 17 percent (16.7) between 18 and 64 years old. That was in 2012. We are planning to do the next survey in 2017. We do it every five to six years."
Sheikh Mohamed added,"As you know we have a strategy for diabetes. We are working to do diabetes screening for everyone and deliver drugs to each and every health centre. We hope that the patients will help us to take care of them by coming regularly for their appointments."
Talking about the expansion of smart clinic like the one in Al Wakrah Health Centre whereby individuals at higher risk of developing diabetes are invited to the centre to undergo screening, Sheikh Mohammed said,"As you know in Qatar we are working on different projects to ensure every project is successful."
According to Sheikh Mohammed, the electronic system will help them a lot to do better screening for people. He said that one of the goals is to have screening for everyone in Qatar is to lower the complications of diabetes and personalise medication.
"The whole world now is thinking about personalising medication. Each person will know what he needs to take exactly. One of our goals is to reduce the genetic burden of diabetes in the country and we are trying to lower the complications so that a diabetes person can have a normal life expectancy with high productivity," he said.
