Bahrain: AN alarming 20 per cent of Bahrainis with diabetes are not aware that they are living with the killer disease, according to experts.
The metabolic disease, in which the blood sugar levels in one’s body are too high, can often result in either death from heart conditions or kidney failure, blindness or amputations.
More than 154,000 people in Bahrain live with diabetes, of whom 35.5 per cent remain undiagnosed, according to International Diabetes Federation (IDF) statistics.
It also added that the percentage of diabetes-related deaths that occurred in people under 60 years of age was 67.7pc in 2015.
Only 80 per cent of diabetes patients in Bahrain are registered with the Health Ministry, said Primary Care Diabetes Clinic co-ordinator Dr Abeer Al Saweer.
“The last official survey in Bahrain, which was done in 2007, showed that 14.3pc of the population was diabetic. Of that, 20pc was in the high risk group, made up of people in the age group of 40 years to 60 years.
“The IDF has also said that the prevalence of diabetes in Bahrain has gone up during the past 10 years.
“The ministry has done much over the years to have a well-developed medical records system. This contains data of up to 80pc of diabetes patients in Bahrain.
“We have early detection clinics from where people are referred, to either the non-communicable disease clinic or the diabetes clinic depending on their condition.
“The epidemic of diabetes is growing in Bahrain but the individual needs are becoming variable which is why new technology and medical interventions are always welcome.”
Novo Nordisk International Operations vice-president Vikrant Shrotiya said people in the region are taking diabetes as ‘normal’.
Treatment
“According to the IDF, there are 200,000 diabetes patients in Bahrain, of whom only 154,000 know that they have the disease.
“In the GCC we have six million patients with diabetes but the situation is such that out of 100 patients only 50pc know they are diabetic, whereas only 25pc get real treatment.
“While only 12.5 get some kind of control, just 6.5pc get the optimal control and they are the ones leading a near-normal life.”
He said that diabetes patients consider taking insulin injections only at the last stage, which should not be the case.
“They end up becoming critically ill because they have not taken steps to bring it under control early enough.
“Many patients don’t take insulin when they have to take it because they see no symptoms as in the case of other diseases.
“We say people died from heart attack or kidney failure or they lost their eyesight, but what we fail to see is that these are complications from the killer disease diabetes which was not tackled early enough.”
IDF reports that globally $6 billion is spent to treat and manage diabetes complications and an average of 14pc of government health budgets across the world is spent on treating diabetes.
Bahrain was no different and the government is spending millions of dollars on this disease. said public health director Dr Maryam Al
Hajeri.
“The burden of the disease is not only on the money that we spend to treat but also on the complications apart from the psychological damage it causes to the patient.
“The exact amount that we spent is not assessed but it definitely costs much and treating complications cost more.
“Treating complications like blindness and amputations cost millions of dollars.
“According to our records, 60pc of deaths from heart attacks and kidney failures were complications from diabetes.
raji@gdn.com.bh