World Diabetes Day 2006 to raise awareness of challenges faced by sufferers across the Middle East

Events, exhibitions and free screenings are taking place across the world to support the awareness of communities and groups in both developed and developing countries that experience difficulties in accessing optimal healthcare.

The Gulf region is particularly prone to the disease and has seen a dramatic rise in the numbers of people diagnosed with diabetes in recent years with one in four people now affected with the condition. Experts have blamed the combined factors of an inactive lifestyle, poor eating habits and obesity for the rapid spread of diabetes through the population.

New figures from the World Health Organization suggest that, by 2030, 42.6 million people in the Middle East will suffer from the debilitating disease.

Nearly half of all people with diabetes across the Gulf region will also develop some form of nerve damage characterised by painful sensations of burning, numbness or tingling which can often be misdiagnosed and be debilitating leading to depression, anxiety and severe disruption to quality of life.

Symptoms can be mild to incapacitating and are often progressive and intermittent. About half of all people with diabetic nerve damage say the pain worsens at night with symptoms intensifying when sufferers are tired or under stress.

"Nerve pain is one of the major symptoms of diabetes and can almost imprison sufferers within their own bodies because of the discomfort and stress," said Dr. Mohammed Saadah, President, Emirates Neurology Society, Consultant Neurologist and Head of Department, Rashid Hospital, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Many doctors are hoping that World Diabetes Day 2006 will not only raise awareness of the scale of the problem - and support campaigns to reduce its incidence - but also inform sufferers about treatments available to them to help manage the challenges.

Dr. Ahmed Abd-Rabou, consultant physician, Diabetologist& Endocrinologist and Chairman of medical department at Al Salam Hospital in Kuwait said: "Diabetes is a major worldwide epidemic and particularly prevalent in the Gulf. It is vital that the problem is not underestimated and that people are fully aware of all the new treatments available for them to help improve their quality of life."

A recent FDA-approved drug, Lyrica, is available in more than 50 countries, including the UAE and Kuwait, with other GCC countries expected to distribute the drug shortly to help relieve the symptoms of nerve pain brought on by diabetes.

Diabetic nerve pain results from nerve damage which occurs when blood sugar levels are too high. Damaged nerves become over-excited and send too many signals throughout the body leading to the pain.

Lyrica works by attaching to part of the over-firing nerve cells, reducing the pain signals that cause the symptoms of diabetic nerve pain.

World Diabetes Day was set up in 1991 by the International Diabetes Federation and World Health Organization with the aim of coordinating diabetes advocacy worldwide.