Yemen off to a good start

A diabetes centre in Sana’a is the corner stone in a World Diabetes Foundation supported project that hopes to create awareness and start a process of building a national strategy to map and fight non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes in this relatively poor country in the Middle East Region.

According to the World Health Organization’s Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean (WHO EMRO), obesity poses an emerging health care problem and is considered a major risk factor in the development of diabetes and cardiovascular disease in the region. Presently more than 16 million people live with diabetes in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. A number which is expected to rise to almost 43 million by the year 2025.

In the heart of a region considered wealthy, Yemen is one of the few countries that does not benefit from major oil resources. Desert and rugged mountains dominate the country, where barely 3% of the land is arable and 40% of the 22 million Yemenis live below the national poverty line.

Lack of resources within the health sector puts prevention of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes on the back burner. But prevention is needed; obesity is an increasing problem in all of the Arab countries and diabetes is as always a close follower; a 2004 study shows that abnormal glucose tolerance was present in 78% of obese individuals in Yemen.

	Centre for Diabetes Care and Control, Yemen.

Since July 2005, the World Diabetes Foundation has supported the establishment of a Centre for Diabetes Care and Control (CDCC) which is hosted by the main referral hospital in Yemen - the Al Thawra Modern General and Teaching Hospital. The centre was inaugurated in March 2007 and its services certainly fell like rain on a parched land; today more than 1,000 patients are registered and have access to the clinic three days a week, offering services such as group education, one to one sessions, foot examination and lab tests.

More importantly from a prevention perspective, the project activities also include a public awareness campaign and training of at least 220 health care providers in Al Thawra as well as five other hospitals in the capital Sana’a where diabetes units will be established.

A great need for awareness among all groups

When creating awareness in the target groups, several challenges appear ,illiteracy is one of them; seven of ten adult men can read, while only three of ten women are literate.

In Yemen, the private health sector provides medical care to the privileged part of the population, while the poor and thus a majority of the of illiterate people visit the public health centres. Awareness material must be designed specifically to include this large group.

Furthermore prevention efforts must be extended to the wider population. According to President of the Yemeni Diabetes Association (YDA) and project responsible Dr. Zayed Atef: “The private sector should to a greater extent have the economic resources and technical expertise to practice preventive medicine”, he says. “Unfortunately, this discipline is for the most part neglected in private hospitals, where treatment is characterized by short term and narrow medical interventions”.

Good intentions need a national strategy

YDA, the Thawra General Hospital are other partners, while the Ministry of Health is the sovereign authority and partner in the project.

In October 2007, Programme Coordinator Mr. Ulrik Uldall Nielsen visited Yemen and felt a strong commitment from the project team: “The project will make a difference for the people with diabetes who now visit the centre in Sana’a”, he says, but notices; “to improve the general state of diabetes care for all people with diabetes in Yemen, a NCD/diabetes strategy is strongly recommended. "Today good intentions are present, but if this local commitment is combined with a national strategy they can determine the size of the diabetes problem and the solutions in the national context.”

During his visit he met with the Minister of Health from Yemen, Dr. Abdel Karim Rasea. Mr. Ulrik Uldall Nielsen expressed his views and hopes for the government to consider the development of a national NCD/diabetes strategy, which would secure that the necessary priority is given to the fight against preventable long term consequences of poorly controlled diabetes.

Regional Conference addressed the growing burden of diabetes in the Middle East Region

The World Diabetes Foundation was a part of an diabetes alliance co-hosting a major health economics and diabetes conference organised by the Health Minister’s Council for the Cooperation Council States in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, the World Health Organization’s Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean, the Arab Gulf Programme for United Nations Development Organization, and the World Bank.

The conference addressed all aspects of the economics of diabetes, including medical and social issues at international, regional and Gulf levels.

The ultimate goal of the conference was to increase the knowledge of governmental officials, policy makers and others concerned with the economic aspects of diabetes. “Our participation in this event was an important mechanism to advocate about preventive interventions on national and regional levels”, says Dr. Anil Kapur, Managing Director of the World Diabetes Foundation.  “Another key focus for the Foundation was to address the apparent lack of formulated health policies, strategies and action plans to address the emerging pandemic of diabetes and other non-communicable diseases that over time can be elevated to national programmes”, he explains.

As part of the policy framework, the Executive Board of the Health Ministers Council for Gulf Cooperation Council States (GCC), presented the Riyadh Declaration – a joint statement on diabetes control as a guiding strategy to address the challenges of diabetes, particularly from the economic standpoint and Yemen was represented at this forum.

Read more about the project

This page was last updated 2-6-2008 by jrb.wdf