DHA and Sanofi conduct diabetes awareness campaign at Dubai

As part of the ongoing diabetes awareness campaign, the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) and Sanofi Gulf recently conducted a diabetes screening and awareness program for employees of Dubai Government Workshop. This campaign is part of the wider campaign to reach out to all governmental bodies in the Emirate of Dubai. The campaign at the Dubai Government Workshop will include screening of all 350 employees. In addition to screening, the campaign also involves educational lectures and distribution of health information booklets. The first phase involved screening 204 employees and on Thursday the remaining employees will also be screened. Of the 204 employees screened, 22 showed abnormal blood sugar readings, of these 8 were aware that they had diabetes and the remaining we asked to undergo further investigation to confirm the diagnosis. Dr Mohamed Farghaly, Head of Acute and Chronic care, Primary Health Care Sector at the DHA: "This screening program is of vital importance as not everyone is aware of their health status and this program helps in early detection of diabetes, which is a key factor to prevent further complications of the disease. Therefore through this program we strongly advocate that everyone should undergo regular health screening to be aware of their health conditions and to ensure that diseases are detected early on." He said that from the beginning of this year, the DHA has already conducted this campaign across six governmental organisations and will continue this campaign across the remaining governmental organisations until the end of this year. Until now, the campaigns have been conducted across the Dubai Municipality Head Office Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) Head Office, Islamic Affairs and Charitable Activities, Dubai Civil Defence, Economic Department and Dubai Health Authority headquarters. A total number of 1118 people were screened and 9700 people were reached through this campaign. This is the fourth year that DHA and Sanofi are conducting diabetes awareness campaigns. Since the inception of the overall diabetes campaign in 2009, DHA and Sanofi have targeted all 14 primary healthcare centres and have already reached out to a number of sections in society including school children in order to inculcate the importance of healthy lifestyle among the future generations of our society. George Morcos, General Manager, Sanofi -Gulf said: "As a global healthcare leader, we are deeply committed to educating the community about their health. Such campaigns are vital as they inculcate the importance of early screening." This campaign will take place until the end of 2012 across all governmental entities in the Emirate.