His Highness Prince Dr. Khalid bin Faisal Al Saud, Deputy Commander of the National Guard in the Western Province. Launched the 3rd International Gulf Group for the Study of Diabetes Conference Monday, February 8th 2010 under the title "Diabetes: It's time to take action", in the Intercontinental Hotel, Jeddah. The conference was hosted by the National Guard Health Affairs in the presence of HE Dr. Bandar Al Knawy the CEO of National Guard Health Affairs and the President of King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences in collaboration with the Executive Office of the Gulf’s Ministers of Health Council and a number of health leaders from Arab League University and the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) as well as a number of organizations, entities and associations.
The Chairman of the Organizing Committee Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Twaim gave a speech in which he explained the risks that the Gulf community might face due to the rapid spread of diabetes in the Gulf region particularly in Saudi Arabia where 24% of those who are over the age of thirty suffer from diabetes when it was not more than 5% in 1984.
Dr. Bandar Al Knawy said this conference comes within a series of scientific conferences in the Gulf. The 1st international conference was held in the United Arab Emirates in 2005, the 2nd was held in Oman in 2007, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia hosts the 3rd conference this year. The 3rd International Conference highlights diabetes in the Gulf region, the enormous challenges facing health systems and most importantly achieving global developments for diabetes treatment.
The NGHA has always been interested in combating diabetes, supporting continuous educational program and developing training programs for preventive, therapeutic, diagnostic diabetes service providers. In addition it supports promoting health services and providing excellent medical care in many fields.
At the end, his Highness Prince Dr. Khalid bin Faisal, gave the opening ceremony speech in which he retailed how the physical and mental pain that diabetic patients and their families go through give a clear incentive to follow through with adequate programs, studies and research us to address this dangerous disease. He also talked about the great of role that awareness events and state of the art facilities play for diabetic patients to live normal lives, adding that education and continuous training turned into a global and national strategy adopted by the NGHA for it believes in utilizing optimum human and material resources for the development of the country and its people.
At the end of the conference, His Highness honored the participants and Dr. Bandar Al Knawy gave a memorial gift to Prince Dr. Khalid Bin Faisal for sponsoring this conference. After that, His Highness opened the exhibition associated with the conference.