SPOTLIGHT ON EGYPT
The Egyptian Diabetes Association (EDA) is the country’s principal diabetes NGO and a founding member of the IDF MENA region.
Professor Morsi Arab, president of the organization and former IDF Vice-President tells us about challenges in a country in a state of
political flux with eight million people with diabetes.
What are the main challenges for people with diabetes in your country?
The big challenge of diabetes in Egypt is the huge number of diagnosed patients.
This is the result of not only a high prevalence rate, about 10.5%, but also a large size of the general population. Egypt
is currently number eight in the list of countries with the highest number of people with diabetes, according to IDF’s
Diabetes Atlas.
The huge diabetic population creates an obvious economic burden, especially in a country with limited financial
resources which are already stretched to meet the ideal level of diabetes care. In order to overcome this situation
governmental expenditure in the field of diabetes has to be complemented with other non-governmental sources like
different types of health insurance programmes and also from private resources.
The mission of the EDA is to provide a better life for people with diabetes through advocacy, improved education and
guidance to prevent complications.
Have Egypt’s revolutions affected diabetes care in the country?
The Egyptian people have revolted twice during a very short period of time against two unacceptable governing regimes. The situation is
now becoming more stable and moving toward democracy and away from a dictatorship. Fortunately, in spite of significant economic
suffering, the availability of medicines and care for people with diabetes did not suffer.
The huge diabetic population creates an obvious economic burden, especially in a country with limited financial
resources which are already stretched to meet the ideal level of diabetes care
How do you fulfill your mission?
Diabetes education is universally recognized to be a basic element of proper diabetes care. An outstanding achievement of the EDA in
this field has been made during the past two decades.
We realized that limited successes in the field of patient and healthcare education were the result of poor professional performances by
those who play the role of educators.
Consequently, a comprehensive course for promoting the professional performance of diabetes educators was designed by highly
qualified education experts. The course "Development of Professional Education Skills" was carried out through workshops which toured
the different provinces of Egypt.
Furthermore, the same touring workshop was held in different countries of the MENA Region, in collaboration with diabetes associations
in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Libya and Sudan.
Another outstanding success in the mission of the EDA was the creation of "National Diabetes Programmes" in
accordance with the recommendations of the 2006 United Nations Resolution on Diabetes. The aim of the EDA
was to create a national programme that suits the MENA region and that could be remodelled to suit the local
national socioeconomic conditions in each one of its countries. This process considers the availability of
resources and the limitations in each specific country in the region. Again a touring workshop programme was
organized to promote the creation of or to support any existing national diabetes programme in countries of the
region .
So far, successful workshops were held in Alexandria, Cairo, Tehran and Beirut, and the current regional action
plan will be including similar visits to other countries.
What does the future hold for EDA?
The future carries great concern because of the increasing problem of diabetes in Egypt and hence a greater burden on the EDA and on
the general socioeconomics of the country. This concern is quite true if we realize that the total number of diagnosed diabetes patients
by the year 2030 is expected to reach about 12.4 million.
In spite of all the above the EDA has been the historical leading member association in the MENA Region and the principal founder of the
IDF region. Consequently the EDA shall always feel a great responsibility to guide and inform sister member associations all over the
region. The EDA is also committed to providing advice to IDF Global Leadership on the very specific aspects of
this region and to coordinate its services with IDF plans at both regional and global levels.