WHO Urges Joint Efforts Of Member States To Combat Diabetes In Celebration Of World Health Day 2016

The World Health Organization (WHO) in the Western Pacific Region called on all member States and partners to renew thier commitment in advancing the understanding of diabetes and encouraged all communities across the region to work together to effectively manage and prevent the disease.

WHO made the statement in line with the celebration of World Health Day 2016 on Thursday.

“Get in the circle” and help stop this disease (diabetes) and the needless pain and suffering it causes…Together, we can prevent premature deaths and save lives,” said Dr. Shin Young-soo, WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific, at World Health Day 2016 celebration held at WHO Office in United Nations Avenue, Manila.

“We must all do our part to prevent, detect and manage diabetes while providing essential support to those who are affected by this disease,” Dr. Shin told member countries as he cited that it is only by working together that nations can truly stop the rise of diabetes in the Western Pacific.

He emphasized that through a coordinated, multi-sectoral approach with policies in urban planning, education, transport, agriculture and financial resources, WHO member countries can promote good health for everyone.

Diabetes is one of the four major non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and its global prevalence has been steadily increasing in recent years. In the Western Pacific Region alone, it is estimated that 131 million people (8.4 percent prevalence) were living with diabetes in 2014.

Diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs either when the pancreas does not produce enough of the blood sugar-regulating hormone insulin or when the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces.

Hyperglycaemia, or elevated blood sugar, is a common effect of diabetes that eventually leads to serious damage to many of the body’s systems, especially the nerves and blood vessels.

Type 1 diabetes cannot be prevented yet. Type 2 diabetes results from the body’s ineffective use of insulin.

Type 2 diabetes comprises 90 percent of people with diabetes worldwide and is largely the result of excess body weight and physical inactivity.

Symptoms may be similar to those of Type 1 diabetes but are often less noticeable. Thus, the disease is diagnosed sometimes several years after onset, once complications have already risen.

Consequences of diabetes

Diabetes can increase the overall risk of premature death, as well as complications such as heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, leg amputation, vision loss and nerve damage. In pregnancy, poorly-controlled diabetes can lead to fetal death and other complications. The disease and its subsequent complications can also cause substantial economic loss to people with diabetes and their families, and to health systems and national economies through direct medical costs and loss of income.

Preventing diabetes requires taking a life-course approach by improving early childhood nutrition; providing supportive environments for physical activity; and developing interventions that can support its prevention and control.

The starting point for living well with diabetes is early diagnosis.

No single intervention or policy can address diabetes.

Individually, everyone can reduce the risk of diabetes with little with cost-effective interventions such as maintaining healthy body weight; eating healthy, exercising regularly and avoiding smoking and harmful use of alcohol and of course, getting regular medical check-ups

To reduce the impact of diabetes, WHO recommends that countries and partners:

Establish national mechanisms to ensure political commitment, resource allocation, effective leadership and advocacy for an integrated NCD response, with specific attention to diabetes;

-Build the capacity of ministries of health to exercise a strategic leadership role, engaging stakeholders across sectors and society;

-Set national targets and indicators to foster accountability and ensure that national policies and plans addressing diabetes are fully costed, funded and implemented;

-Prioritize actions to prevent people becoming overweight and obese, beginning before birth and in early childhood. Implement policies and progras to promote breastfeeding and the consumption of healthy foods and to discourage the consumption of unhealthy foods, such as sugary sodas;

-Create supportive environments for physical activity by using a combination of fiscal policies, legislation, changes to the environment and raising awareness to promote healthier diets and physical activity;

-Implement guidelines and protocols to improve diagnosis and management of diabetes in primary health care;

-Establish policies and programs to ensure equitable access to essential technologies for diagnosis and management. Make essential medicines such as human insulin available and affordable to all who need them;

-Address key gaps in the diabetes knowledge base; and

-Strengthen national capacity to collect, analyze and use representative data on the burden and trends of diabetes and its key risk factors.

“Our dynamic Region cannot afford to give in to this disease, which devastates families and communities and weakens national economies. We must all put a stop to diabetes once and for all,” said Dr Shin.(PNA) BNB/LSJ/EDS