14 November 2014 | Cairo, Egypt – On World Diabetes Day, 14 November, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) are calling on individuals to make healthy food choices, starting with breakfast, on countries to take immediate action to create environments and conditions to enable such choices, and on media, professionals and professional associations, and civil society to support public health actions to promote healthy diets as a key approach to prevent diabetes and reduce complications in those living with diabetes.

Diabetes is one of the major noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). Unhealthy diet and sedentary lifestyles are two of the four main risk factors for NCDs, which are the leading causes of death in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR). NCDs account for over 2.2 million deaths annually, over 51% of which are premature. Diabetes, one of the four main NCDs, is closely linked to unhealthy lifestyles, especially diet, which in turn is linked to environments that promote unhealthy choices.

Dr Ala Alwan, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean points to the enormous burden of diabetes in the Region: “Over 14% of the population in the Eastern Mediterranean Region has diabetes, which is a critical challenge for our countries”. Rising diabetes prevalence in the region is closely related to the rising prevalence of overweight and obesity. New 2014 WHO estimates indicate that over 17% of people in the Eastern Mediterranean Region are obese.

“Diabetes is a menacing but hidden pandemic”, says Professor Adel El Sayed, Chair of the IDF MENA Region, “with up to half of all people with diabetes globally remaining undiagnosed”. Preventing diabetes in the first place, detecting it early in those unaware of it, and managing it well in those known to have it are the key approaches to address this public health challenge. “Much can be done to prevent type 2 diabetes and to effectively manage diabetes to avoid serious complications;” assures Dr El Sayed “healthy diets and promotion of environments that encourage and facilitate healthy food choices are central to such efforts.”

“The rapid acceleration in the rates of overweight, obesity and NCDs related to diet, such as diabetes, over the past few decades,” explains Dr Alwan “reflects the profound changes in lifestyles, particularly food intake patterns, in our populations.” With increasing urbanization, globalization, and economic improvements, dietary habits have become less healthy, and people more sedentary. Increasingly, diets are high in saturated fats, cholesterol, salt and refined carbohydrates, and low in polyunsaturated fats, fiber, fruits and vegetables. “Insufficient policy and public health response has exacerbated the situation,” adds Dr Alwan.

Promoting healthy eating and physical activity can prevent diabetes and other NCDs but “a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach is central, as focusing on individual behaviors will not suffice,” Dr Alwan affirms. All stakeholders, across government, civil society, media, professional associations, and industry such as food manufacturers must be involved. Multisectoral action is required to build health literacy, raise awareness among the population and to make healthy food choices and improved physical activity the easy choice. But there are challenges to making this happen.

“Marketing of unhealthy foods, for example on TV and in schools, is rampant in the region,” says Dr Alwan “and this is triggering unhealthy food preferences and habits, especially in children and adolescents.” But “health leaders in the region are now determined to take action,” adds Dr Alwan. During the October 2014 session of the Regional Committee for the Eastern Mediterranean–a meeting of WHO, health ministers and other stakeholders–the ministers endorsed a new WHO initiative on “countering the largely unopposed commercial practices that promote unhealthy products, particularly those targeting children.”

On this World Diabetes Day, WHO and IDF call for concerted efforts to prevent diabetes that are commensurate with the profound public health burden of diabetes in the region.

For more information, please contact:

Dr Slim Slama
WHO Medical Officer for Noncommunicable Diseases
Tel: +202 22765696
email: هذا البريد محمى من المتطفلين. تحتاج إلى تشغيل الجافا سكريبت لمشاهدته.
website: www.emro.who.int

About World Diabetes Day

World Diabetes Day raises global awareness of diabetes, its escalating rates around the world and how to prevent the illness in most cases. Initiated by WHO and the IDF, the Day is celebrated on 14 November every year to mark the birth of Frederick Banting who, along with Charles Best, was instrumental in the discovery of insulin in 1922, a life-saving treatment for diabetes patients.
To learn more, visit www.idf.org/worlddiabetesday

About WHO

In the 21st century, health is a shared responsibility, involving equitable access to essential care and collective defence against transnational threats. WHO is the directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations system. It is responsible for providing leadership on global health matters, shaping the health research agenda, setting norms and standards, articulating evidence-based policy options, providing technical support to countries and monitoring and assessing health trends.
To learn more, visit www.emro.who.int

About the IDF

The IDF is an umbrella organization of over 200 national diabetes associations in over 160 countries. It represents the interests of the growing number of people with diabetes and those at risk. The Federation has been leading the global diabetes community since 1950. IDF’s mission is to promote diabetes care, prevention and a cure worldwide.
To learn more, visit www.idf.org/

Danascys, Syria, 2 July 2014 – Recent and increasing interruptions of access to safe drinking water in Syria are compounding the dire water, sanitation and health conditions for hundreds of thousands of internally displaced and vulnerable people inside Syria. This has resulted in a high risk of outbreaks of water- and food-borne diseases, such as typhoid, hepatitis A, cholera, and other diarrhoeal diseases during the current summer season.

Water and sanitation systems have significantly deteriorated over the past year, with a breakdown of the main water supply networks and widespread pollution of water, including in the Euphrates River, which is a primary source of drinking water for the northern and eastern governorates in Syria. In 2014, the lowest rainfall precipitation on record has resulted in unprecedented drought and this is contributing to a worsening situation.

On 2 June, an explosion caused damage to water, sewage and electrical networks, resulting in a severe loss of capacity to pump water to Aleppo City, and leaving an estimated 2 million people without regular water supply. The situation remains critical. To date, safe access to the pumping station has not been secured, and the repairs will require three weeks of work to complete.

In Deir ez-Zor, the reported cuts to the water and electricity supply have contributed to the spread of diseases, and health workers continue to report increased cases of suspected typhoid. The Early Warning and Response System (EWARS) has reported over 1650 cases of suspected typhoid in Deir ez-Zor governorate, mostly in Al-Bukamal and Al-Mayadin towns. Also, recent reports of military action in East Ghouta may further affect water supplies to host communities and neighbouring areas.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) urgently call on parties to the conflict in Syria to halt using access to safe water and other vital services as a tactic of war. UNICEF and WHO call for an immediate ceasefire in Bustan Al-Basha in Aleppo to enable the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) and technical experts to safely access the area for repairs.

We re-state the urgent need for unimpeded access for the delivery of life-saving humanitarian assistance, including safe water, health and hygiene supplies, to vulnerable populations to mitigate the risk of disease outbreaks this summer.

Finally, we urge the international community to prioritise the dire humanitarian needs of the Syrian people and extend all of its influence and advocacy to end the targeting of water supplies and to immediately facilitate humanitarian access.

For further information, please contact:
Juliette Touma, UNICEF Regional Office, هذا البريد محمى من المتطفلين. تحتاج إلى تشغيل الجافا سكريبت لمشاهدته. , +962-79-8674628
Karim Shukr, WHO Syria, هذا البريد محمى من المتطفلين. تحتاج إلى تشغيل الجافا سكريبت لمشاهدته. , + 963-953-888470

This year’s World Blood Donor Day highlights the fact that safe blood saves the lives of mothers. It is a call to save the lives of the thousands of women worldwide who die every year due to complications related to pregnancy and childbirth.

The slogan of this year’s World Blood Donor Day campaign is “give blood for those who give life”. The campaign aims to improve access to safe blood to manage pregnancy-related complications as part of a comprehensive approach to maternal care. In doing so, the campaign could help to save the lives of the 800 women who die every day from pregnancy- or childbirth-related complications worldwide.

Almost all maternal deaths due to such complications occur in developing countries. Severe bleeding during delivery and after childbirth is a major cause of mortality, morbidity and long-term disability. Blood transfusion is recognized as a key life-saving intervention for the management of pregnancy- and childbirth-related complications.

On this occasion, Dr Ala Alwan, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean reiterated that “the most common cause of preventable maternal deaths in the Region is severe bleeding. Many of these deaths could be prevented through access to safe blood and blood products. In several countries, the greatest need for donated blood is for the management of severe anaemia and pregnancy-related complications. As well, in the countries experiencing complex humanitarian emergencies, the safety and availability of blood supply are at risk among affected populations”.

In the Eastern Mediterranean Region, low- and middle-income countries suffer from an acute shortage of safe blood. Most of these countries collect less than half of the blood needed, with an average donation rate of 10 donations per 1000 population. Voluntary non-remunerated blood donors comprise on average 50% of regional donors, ranging between 2% and 100% in some countries. Due to the inadequate supply of blood from voluntary unpaid donors, most countries depend on the families of patients for replacing the blood units required for transfusion.

“The primary challenge to improving blood safety and availability in the Region is the lack of national policies, strategies and action plans that reflect a comprehensive approach to addressing issues of safety, quality, sufficiency, availability and timely accessibility of blood and blood products” Dr Alwan added. “WHO’s strategy for blood safety and availability addresses five key areas: establishment of a well-organized, nationally-coordinated blood transfusion service; collection of blood from voluntary unpaid blood donors from low-risk populations; quality-assured testing for transfusion-transmittable infections, blood grouping and compatibility testing; safe and appropriate use of blood; and quality systems covering the entire transfusion process.”

WHO’s goal is for all countries to obtain all their blood supplies from 100% voluntary unpaid blood donations by 2020.

Globally, around 107 million units of donated blood are collected every year. Nearly 50% of these blood donations are collected in high-income countries, home to 15% of the world’s population. However, patients who are in urgent need of these donations do not always benefit from safe blood at the right time. The need for blood transfusion may emerge at any time, in rural or urban areas alike. Women are among the most affected groups in this respect.

On the occasion of World Blood Donor Day, WHO recommends a number of key actions for countries, partners and other stakeholders.

• Ministries of Health, particularly in countries with high rates of maternal mortality, take concrete steps towards ensuring that health facilities in their countries improve access to safe blood and blood products from volunteer donors for women giving birth.
• National blood services in countries with high rates of maternal mortality focus on safe blood for mothers in their activities and products for the 2014 campaign.
• Maternal health programmes and partnerships engage in the 2014 campaign.
• WHO and partners throughout the world highlight how safe blood from voluntary donors can save women’s lives everywhere.

Middle East polio outbreak response continues

Amman, 6 April 2014 – Polio vaccination campaigns commenced in Syria, Iraq and Egypt today, aiming to reach more than 20 million children over the next five days.

For Iraq, this will be the first nationwide vaccination campaign since a case of polio was confirmed by the Ministry of Health on 30 March in a six-month-old boy from Rusafa, northern Baghdad. 

“The recent detection of a polio case in Iraq after a 14-year absence is a reminder of the risk currently facing children throughout the region,” said Maria Calivis, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa. “It is now even more imperative to boost routine immunizations to reach every child multiple times and do whatever we can to vaccinate children we could not reach in previous rounds. That’s the only way we will prevent this outbreak from spreading further.”

The current vaccination rounds are part of a comprehensive response to the announcement, in October 2013, that wild poliovirus of Pakistani origin had found its way to Syria. In recognition of the risk of further international spread, the governments of seven countries across the Middle East, with the assistance of local nongovernmental organizations, civil society groups and UN agencies, are endeavouring to reach 22 million children multiple times with polio vaccine. Since October 2013, 25 polio vaccination campaigns were completed across the region, including five rounds in Syria and six in Iraq. 

The numbers of children being vaccinated in each round is rising; however, the outbreak response is yet to reach especially vulnerable groups such as children who are on the move fleeing violence from Syria or those living in the midst of active conflict.

“Midway into the implementation of this outbreak response plan, we’re reaching the vast majority of children across the Middle East,” said Chris Maher, WHO Manager for Polio Eradication and Emergency Support. “In the second phase of the outbreak response we must work with local partners to reach the hardest-to-reach – those pockets of children who continue to miss out, especially in Syria’s besieged and conflict areas and in remote areas of Iraq. We won’t stop until we reach them.” 

Health teams in Lebanon and Turkey will also join the campaign on 10 and 18 April. 

Since the outbreak was announced UNICEF has delivered 14 million doses of polio vaccines to Syria. 

NOTE TO EDITORS

As of end of March 2014, 27 children have been paralyzed by polio in Syria: 18 of these children are in the contested governorate of Deir Ez Zour, four are in Aleppo, two in Idlib, two in Al-Hassakeh and one in Hama. Prior to this outbreak, no polio cases have been recorded in Syria since 1999. The risk of spread to countries in the Region and beyond is considered high, and health authorities from 21 countries have declared a public health emergency. Further polio immunization campaigns will be repeated across the region. In Syria, they will be carried out at monthly intervals until at least May 2014.

On 30 March 2014, the Iraqi Ministry of Health declared a polio outbreak when one case of polio was detected in a child in the Al-Rusafa area in the capital Baghdad. 

Genetically-related polioviruses, which originated in Pakistan, have also been detected in sewage samples in Egypt in December 2012, and in Israel and the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 2013.

Inside Syria over the past years since the conflict erupted in 2011, immunization activities have been significantly constrained by the violence and access restrictions. Cold chain equipment in a number of districts has been lost and mobile health teams have not been able to perform regular visits. This has led to missing out on vaccinating between 500 000-700 000 children in these areas.

For further information, please contact:

Juliette Touma, UNICEF Regional Office for the Middle East and North Africa in Amman, هذا البريد محمى من المتطفلين. تحتاج إلى تشغيل الجافا سكريبت لمشاهدته. , +962-79-867-4628

Rana Sidani, WHO Regional Office in Cairo,  هذا البريد محمى من المتطفلين. تحتاج إلى تشغيل الجافا سكريبت لمشاهدته. , +20-109-975-6506

Sona Bari, WHO Geneva,  هذا البريد محمى من المتطفلين. تحتاج إلى تشغيل الجافا سكريبت لمشاهدته. , +41-79-475-5511