(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) The latest International Diabetes Federation (IDF) Atlas report may not list Oman among the top ten countries in the world with diabetes prevalence, but the sultanate's national registry shows that 7,000 new cases are registered every year.
The IDF report states that wealth and development in the MENA region have led to a large number of diabetes cases where one in ten adults have the disease. According to the latest IDF Atlas, 1,214 adults died due to the disease in Oman in 2013.
Speaking to Muscat Daily, Dr Noor al Busaidi, director of National Diabetes & Endocrine Centre and president of Oman Diabetes Association said, ''According to national registry figures, there are 7,000 new cases in Oman every year, which is a major issue.''
According to her, non-communicable diseases (NCD) mortality is 81 per cent in the country, which includes diabetes.
The national screening programme conducted by the Ministry of Health monitors people aged above 40 years. ''They measure diabetes as well as pre-diabetes and it has been found that there is a rising trend in the latter every year.''
As per national registry statistics, 33 per cent of the Omani population is pre-diabetic, which is a stage just before diabetes. ''Diabetes is a chronic progressive disease; intervention is hard, as it involves lifestyle modification and here we see complications from diabetes in young population (people in 20s and 30s),'' she said.
She said that diabetes is the leading cause of renal failure, blindness, limb amputation and cardiovascular diseases. ''People die here due to diabetes complications; so if not hit by a car, they are hit by diabetes.
''Oman is a little better as compared to other GCC countries and does not figure in (IDF report's) top five countries in MENA,'' said Dr Noor, adding, ''Muscat has the highest prevalence. We have found a large number of cases related to obesity and diabetes in the Batinah region, followed by Salalah.''
She said that fast food was the major cause. ''The enemy, which is the fast food industry, is stronger and each country should do something to prevent their outlets from mushrooming. Few options could be increasing tax, or rule against selling carbonated drinks to children etc.''
This needs government intervention, she said. Type 1 diabetes is more in children and Type 2, which used to affect mostly the elderly, too has now being diagnosed among children in the sultanate. ''People are paying to get diseases by buying junk food.''
The national registry statistics include only those cases registered at hospitals under MoH and not private healthcare institutions. ''The figures are alarming and one can imagine what the figure would be if data from the private ones is included, too,'' she said. Dr Noor stressed that registration be made electronic for accurate figures, besides including private healthcare providers.
Dr Sulaiman al Shereiqi, in-charge of the National NCD Screening programme and senior specialist in public health and health administration at the National Diabetes & Endocrine Centre said, ''The latest nationally reported prevalence of diabetes among Omani adults is 12.3 per cent, which entails that there should be around 137,000 affected, but only 77,000 are currently registered at MoH,'' adding, ''IDF projects that the prevalence in 2013 would have been 14.2 per cent.''
He said that the group with the highest incidence (rate of annual occurrence) of Type 2 diabetes is 55-59 years, and the age group with the highest number of annually diagnosed cases is 45-49 years.
''Although the national screening programme is provided in all primary healthcare centres, more women visit them than men and the overall utilisation is 25 per cent.''
REASON FOR ALARM
There were 382mn diabetics worldwide in 2013; by 2035 this number will rise to 592mn.
Diabetes caused 5.1mn deaths in 2013.
The number of people with Type 2 diabetes is increasing in every country.
80% of people with diabetes live in low- and middle-income countries.
Largest number of people with diabetes are in 40-5
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