Egypt has recently seen a surge in diabetes rates, with 7.5 million citizens diagnosed as diabetic, according to the estimates of an internal medicine professor, who blamed the rise on patient's negligence of medical advice.
Speaking to a conference by the the Egyptian Society of Diabetes & Lipidology, marking the official launching of its activities, Sherif Hafez, professor of diabetes and internal medicine at Cairo University, said Egypt spends nearly US$1.3 million annually for diabetes treatment.
Hesham al-Hefnawy, head of the National Diabetes & Endocrinology Institute, said the institute is continuing its public diabetes awareness campaign for the fifth consecutive year in association with Sanofi-Aventis.
According to Hefnawy, the campaign, which had been frequented by 7,800 citizens, concluded that 4 percent of the visitors above 40 were obliviously diabetic, while 17 percent were prone to the disease. He said patients previously diagnosed with diabetes were yet to reach ideal diabetes rates, which puts them to future danger.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
