Thousands take on the silent killer

Dubai: Creating awareness about the risks of diabetes has long been touted as an essential step towards preventing and managing the lifestyle disease, and thousands of people yesterday gathered at a walkathon in Dubai to spread the word.

Attracting nearly 12,000 people from all walks of life, the 3.1-kilometre Beat Diabetes walkathon organised by the Landmark Group started early in the morning from the vicinity of Oasis Centre. Pakistani cricketer Wasim Akram was among the marchers.

"The main reason for this annual event is to dispel the ignorance attached to the disease and how it can affect just about anyone if proper care is not taken, and also to encourage people to live healthier lifestyles. It is a symbolic walk, with which we hope to spur people on to beat the disease," said Bhuvana Acharya, head of corporate communications and corporate social responsibility at the Landmark Group.

Unhealthy lifestyles

With diabetes affecting 19.2 per cent of the UAE population, the country is known to have the second highest diabetes prevalence in the world.

Recent reports by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) also suggest that the prevalence of Type-2 diabetes, which is brought on mainly by unhealthy lifestyles and weight gain, is rising rapidly in the UAE and the Middle East and North Africa region among teenagers and people under the age of 30 years.

"This year's walk was therefore especially geared at creating awareness about the risks of diabetes among children, and similar walkathons have, or will be, organised in Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, India and Saudi Arabia," Acharya said.

"We also offered free testing to ascertain diabetes risks for individuals, and these tests will continue today as we do our best to reduce the prevalence of this debilitating disease," she added. Dr Mario Fetz, director of external relations at the IDF, who was also present for the walkathon, called for more awareness among the public as well as health professionals. "Diabetes is a disease that affects many aspects of health, and can therefore be detected in almost any medical setting. So in addition to reaching out to ordinary people, we also need to focus on training health professionals," he said.