40% of Qatari kids suffer from diabetes

ALARMING FIGURES: Up to 40 percent of children in Qatar have diabetes. (Getty Images)

As many as 40 percent of children in Qatar are suffering from diabetes with the number of new sufferers increasing each year, a new study has found.

Dr Abdullah Al Hamaq, executive director of Qatar Diabetes Association (QDA), said globally 500,000 children under the age of 15 had type 1 diabetes, while in Qatar 40 percent of children were suffering from diabetes 1 and 2, Qatar daily The Peninsula reported on Sunday.

"Lifestyle is the main reason for this alarming rise of childhood diabetes," Sharoud A Matthis, programme manager of QDA told the newspaper. "Unhealthy food habits, less exercise and also sometimes presence of a genetic factor all propel diabetes in the young.”

An international three-day conference to address the problem of diabetes and obesity in children has been organised by the QDA in collaboration with Detroit Medical Centre, Children’s Hospital of Michigan (USA) and the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) from Oct. 10 to 12 at the Doha Sheraton Hotel.

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READERS' COMMENTS

40% of Qatari kids suffer from diabetes
Posted by shantisubra, Dubai, UAE on Sunday 7 September 2008 at 11:24 UAE time

I have written comments on the illness before, under a different heading. With all these increasingly growing super rich billionaires in this region (simply by way of demanding high rents) with easy money and without even 0.001% of hard work, with all the restaurants crowded with people with palate for food of high calories not only Diabetes but should be ready to welcome many more ailments. I am feared of the second and future generation billionaires of Gulf. Unless the life style changes with little hard work and exercise combined with dietary plan, it is difficult to control.

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