28 May 2017 - The WHO country office in Egypt, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Population, organized a press conference to renew the call to join the “health in a message” service and introduce the threat to health posed by noncommunicable diseases, especially diabetes, on 24 May 2017.

The press conference was convened to confirm the important role of the media in promoting the service and inviting people with diabetes to join the service by calling or sending a message to one of the following numbers: 

01068326578

01276433914.

The press conference highlighted the implementation of the health awareness program through mobile phones and the third phase of the “Health in a message” SMS service, which is provided by WHO in Egypt, in collaboration with the Ministries of Health and Population and Communication.

This service was launched last year in two phases, 10 000 people with diabetes responded to the first phase with an additional 150 000 people registering later in the year. It is hoped that this number will reach 200 000 this year.

Egypt is one of the 7 countries that implement this program to send health messages to people with diabetes including medical advice on how to live safely with diabetes. 

In addition, the Ministry of Health and Population announced that 49% of kidney failure cases were caused by high blood pressure and diabetes, and that 62% of Egyptians suffered from weight gain with 31.3% of these people being categorized as obese.