RIYADH: The rate of babies delivered by Caesarean section in Saudi
Arabia is growing alarmingly with the nationwide increase reflecting an
upward trend in these cases in recent years.
A cross section of
medical experts expressed concerns Saturday over the fact that caesarian
delivery cases surged by 67 percent in the country last year.
A similar trend was noticed in the first quarter of 2016 with experts saying that the reasons behind the surge are preventable.
RIYADH: Obesity is increasing in the Kingdom at an alarming rate and it
will eventually lead to diabetes causing renal, cardiac, dental and eye
diseases, said a senior official at a Riyadh-based company.
Vikrant
Shrotriya of Novo Nordisk was speaking to Arab News about this year’s
WHO theme, “Beat Diabetes,” to mark the World Health Day on Thursday.
“The
theme is a timely choice, since there are 350 million diabetics in the
world and this is expected to be doubled by 2040, and the world spends
some $673 billion to treat and prevent the disease,” he said, pointing
out that the deaths cause by diabetes is much more than any other
disease in the world.
Nearly 1.5 million people die of diabetes every year, according to WHO. “One in every 11 persons become a victim of the disease,” said Shrotriya. “It is a silentkiller if not properly treated.”
JEDDAH – Jeddah’s Culture and Arts Association has
screened a short film, “Treat me with Kindness,” aimed at educating the
public about their rights in the Kingdom’s hospitals and focusing on the
issues patients often face.
Bad customer service from hospital employees, difficulty
communicating with nurses and a lack of available hospital appointments
are some of the issues highlighted in the movie.
The film, directed by Abdulrahman Mirza, does not blame any single
party for the poor customer service in Jeddah’s hospitals, and instead
tries to present the reality of healthcare in the city and also educate
the public.
The crew who worked on the film have a medical and health background,
and decided to produce the movie after observing hospital conditions and
witnessing complaints from patients and their families.
RIYADH: A statistical report stated that diabetes in the Gulf has
reached record numbers, with rates reaching between 12 to 24 percent,
and increasing as people get older.
Rates are 8 percent in people
under 35 years old, while those over 65 years old form 50.4 percent, and
the percentages are expected to increase by the year 2030 to reach 24
to 50 percent.
The report pointed out that diabetes among Bahrain is
is around 40 percent in people over 40 years; in Oman rates increase to
reach 12 percent in adults; Kuwait has 22.4 percent; the United Arab
Emirates has 19.6 percent.
This year, Global Health Day (April 7) is
allocated to educate people about diabetes, said Mishari bin Hamad
Al-Dakhil, general supervisor of the public directorate for nutrition in
the Ministry of Health.
Diabetes is spreading in an epidemic manner which makes it a risk at the
national level. The importance of this concerns the increased rates of
chronic complications due to diabetes, which increases the total costs
of treating it.
PARIS: One in five adults could be obese by 2025, said a major survey
Friday that warned of a looming epidemic of “severe obesity” with
significant health and economic costs.
The ratio of obese adults has
more than doubled in the 40 years since 1975, and will climb further in
the coming nine, the research showed.
Of about five billion adults alive in 2014, 641 million were obese, it found. The figure was set to exceed 1.1 billion by 2025.
“There will be health consequences of magnitudes that we do not know,”
author Majid Ezzati of Imperial College London told AFP of the research
published by The Lancet medical journal.
“Obesity and especially severe and morbid obesity, affect many organs and physiological processes.
