Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have reached agreements on numerous economic matters since the signing of the Abraham Accords peace agreement in August 2020. Now they are set to cooperate promoting health in the two countries. A first-ever regional forum for the fight against diabetes and obesity will be held in the Israeli pavilion at the World Expo in Dubai.
The forum – established at the initiative of Israel’s Ministry of Regional Cooperation in cooperation with the Health Ministry in Jerusalem through the Israeli Diabetes Council) and the UAE – will begin its conference with experts from Israel, the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and other countries. Israel’s health minister Nitzan Horowitz; Israel Diabetes Council chairman Prof. Itamar Raz and others.
The initiative comes against the background of a significant and alarming increase in the prevalence of diabetes and obesity patients in Israel and in the whole region, and the growing need to formulate a regional response and action plan. In the last decade – and dramatically during the last two years of the COVID-19 pandemic – the diabetes problem has become a silent but equally deadly epidemic. Both Israel and other Middle Eastern countries have been diagnosing diabetics at higher rates than OECD countries, with close to 10% of patients in Israel, 15.6% in Bahrain and 16.3% in the UAE.
Israel and the countries of the region also share a high prevalence in relation to the world of obese patients, especially among children. In 2020, 30% of Jewish children and 50% of Arab children were diagnosed as overweight – which is the most significant risk factor for developing diabetes.
The obesity problem has significantly worsened since the outbreak of the pandemic – by an average increase of five kilos among the Israeli population and a 45% decrease in physical activity. Complications of diabetes are one of the leading causes of death in Israel and the leading cause of death in Arab society. Some 4,000 Israelis die as a result of obesity every year, and grade-two obesity also raises the risk of severe coronary heart disease fivefold.
In parallel with the ongoing forum activity – formulating a five-year plan to fight diabetes and obesity in the region – the conference next week in Dubai is expected to be the first in a series of international conferences, held every six months in different countries.
Israeli Minister for Regional Cooperation, Issawi Frej said that “diabetes is on a steady upward trend. Its containment is in the interest of the whole world and more so of the countries of the region. The common problem requires joint action, and therefore we initiated the establishment of the forum that will allow us to advance a common struggle with a problem that weighs on us all,”
Raz, a leading diabetes expert who for two decades headed the diabetes unit at Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem, added: “The high morbidity rates in Israel and in the countries of the region reflect the personal suffering of many citizens and a great burden on our health systems. We have a goal and we will achieve it – to bring about a dramatic improvement in the problem of obesity and diabetes and its complications in Israel and in the countries of the region; reduce limb amputations, address the growing problem of childhood obesity and enable our citizens to live more healthful lives. We have taken on a task of immense importance for the future of the area and its residents.”
