"About 1,000 children suffer from diabetes in Azerbaijan"

November 14 marked the World Diabetes Day. This date is celebrated annually since 1991 on the birthday of Frederick Banting, a Canadian physiologist who discovered insulin hormone together with Professor John MacLeod.

Today diabetes is the most common disease, which entails serious complications that lead to early loss of working capacity even at a young age. Diabetes has third place in the list of most wide-spread diseases that people suffer. Head of the Azerbaijan Diabetes Society (ADS) Mominet Omarova told about the disease and the problems faced by people with diabetes in an interview with Vesti.Az.


How people with diabetes cope with the disease in Azerbaijan?

Diabetes in Azerbaijan is the same diabetes that exists all over the world. The whole world perceives the spread of this disease as non-infectious pandemic. There is a sharp increase in diabetic patients in Azerbaijan. In recent years, the number of diabetics among the youth and children has increased dramatically. This is a very costly disease. It affects economy to a great degree.

Do you agree with the fact, that diabetes has today acquired a status of a pandemic means that it is a way of life, rather than disease? And how can a modern man who does not have time to get sick, lives with this diagnosis?

Today, the International Diabetes Society does not recognize such a thing as a diabetic. If a diabetic correctly controls his/her illness, he/she has the same sugar levels as a healthy person. The goal is that people diagnosed with diabetes have a normal percentage of sugar in the blood. The patient should always carry a means of self-control and do what is necessary to control blood sugar levels. If you deal with diabetes properly, it becomes a way of life. In this disease is very important to prevent such terrible complications such as blindness, mutations, renal failure.

How serious is the problem of diabetes in Azerbaijan?

Today Azerbaijan has officially registered about 120 thousand people with diabetes. However, not all diabetics are registered, so their number is much higher. In Azerbaijan, as elsewhere in the world, this disease goes on without giving itself felt for a long time. People know the disease when they have high blood sugar or other complication. To prevent such serious diseases as diabetes, Azerbaijan needs to properly promote healthy lifestyles. To this end, staff ADS translated posters, obtained from the International Diabetes Federation into the Azerbaijani language, to distribute them around the city. Thus, we want to draw citizens’ attention to the first signs of awakening diabetes. Each of us must know that we are not insured against illnesses, and to protect ourselves from it, above all, it is necessary to lead a healthy lifestyle. The slogan for World Diabetes Day this year is prevention, training and identification the symptoms of diabetes.

And what about children? How can one explain the sick child that he/she himself must monitor the state of his/her health?

About thousand children suffer from diabetes in Azerbaijan today. All of them are insulin dependent. Children should be explained that their pancreas does not produce insulin to deal with the tendency of increase of blood sugar. Child with diabetes should be taught all the rules of self-control of the disease, he/she, as well as adult patients who must strictly adhere to a diet. ADS with the staff of City Hospital ¹ 6 and Ministry of Education have begun an extensive orientation program for diabetes prevention in schools nationwide. The project aims to identify risk groups among children. Its main goal is to prevent diabetes and tell about the importance of a healthy lifestyle. The first symptoms of diabetes are mostly identified as a teenager. And identifying them at this stage will help reduce diabetes in the future.

Is it true that a person with diabetes needs to stop using many products?

 This is false. People with diabetes can eat anything, but in certain quantities. In this sense, the correct diet is of great importance. The fact is that Azerbaijani cuisine to a certain degree pushes to metabolic disorders. It has too much of sweetness. Tea drinking is accompanied by various kinds of jams and sweets.

How do you assess the level of care for diabetics today as well as the state's attitude to their sick citizens?

Azerbaijan adopted a law on diabetes in 2003. By the way, I should note that such law is not adopted in all countries. After that, National Programme for the Fight against Diabetes began to be developed. The country has significantly improved provision of diabetes medication. Although it is worth noting that the situation with drugs in Baku are much better than in country’s regions.


/Vesti.az/