World Diabetes Day

CAIRO – 14 November 2017: This year World Diabetes Day falls under the theme of Women and Diabetes.

The day was created to serve as a platform to highlight the importance of accessible and affordable diabetes medication, technology, self-care, and education about the disease for all. It is a serious underestimated health threat to women and children.


Photo via the International Diabetes Federation (IDF)



The campaign aims to bring awareness to the women living in developing countries in order to break down the barriers for treatment created by the cost of early prevention, detection, expensive medication, and care. According to World Diabetes website, “Socioeconomic inequalities expose women to the main risk factors of diabetes, including poor diet and nutrition, physical inactivity, tobacco consumption and harmful use of alcohol.”




Photo via the International Diabetes Federation (IDF)

Mohamed Shaaban is an Egyptian young leader member of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) in the Middle East and North Africa. He was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2002. Shaaban is an example for what the IDF aims to do.

According to their website, “the IDF Young Leaders in Diabetes (YLD) Programme was established to empower young people living with diabetes to become advocates for themselves and others living with diabetes worldwide. All the YLD Candidates are committed to raising awareness of diabetes by being a powerful voice for prevention, education, access to quality care improved quality of life, and the end of discrimination worldwide.”

“The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) was incorporated in 1950 under the Belgian law for international not for profit organisations of 27th June 1921 (AISBL). Its Articles of Association, last amended on 10th March 2015, provide the legally binding purpose of IDF, which is encapsulated in our Vision and developed in our Mission and Strategy,” their mission and strategy page read.

The Ministry of Health and Population, represented by the National Institute of Diabetes and Endocrinology, launched an awareness campaign for diabetic patients and their families on Tuesday.

Dean of the Diabetes Institute Hesham Al-Hafnawi said that the campaign includes seminars and educational trips for diabetic patients as well as a launch of free medical convoys.

Hafnawi added that an educational day was held for the patients and their relatives this morning at the institute's lecture hall. Free blood tests were also conducted for the patients and nutritious meals were distributed among them, pointing out that another seminar will be held to raise awareness regarding the disease on Wednesday, November 22 at Cairo University’s Faculty of Nursing.

Inas Shaltout, professor of diabetes at Kasr Al-Ain University and head of the Arab Diabetes Association, said that the number of diabetic people in Egypt, according to the statistics of 2015, is about 8 million Egyptians.


She noted that the expected numbers in Egypt, according to the International Federation of Diabetes, will reach 15 million people by 2040, because it will double if the state does not exert efforts, in cooperation with concerned parties, to manage the spread of diabetes.


Women who have already had gestational diabetes, ovarian calcification, pancreatitis, pancreatic surgery, who take certain drugs such as "cortisone," or are classified as obese are more susceptible to diabetes, and they have to test for diabetes each year after the age of forty, and every three years before the age of forty.


Photo via the International Diabetes Federation (IDF)

Some of the early detectable symptoms of diabetes are: frequent urination, sudden weight loss, low levels of energy, excessive thirst, and even blurred vision.