Under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, UAE Minister of Finance and President of Dubai Health Authority, and with the participation of the World Health Organization, the 1st Non-Communicable Diseases Congress (NCD) in the UAE will be held in Dubai from 9TH till 11th of January. The conference, whose scientific program is accredited from the UAE Ministry of Health with 15 CME hours, deals with cardiac diseases, diabetes, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, cancers and kidney disease.

 

 

Prof. Najib Al Khaja, Secretary General of Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Medical Sciences and the President of the Conference said: For the first time in the Middle East, Hamdan Medical Award organizes the conference in collaboration with the UAE Ministry of Health, Dubai Health Authority, the Oncology Services, Mafraq Hospital, in addition to four UAE medical associations, namely Emirates Diabetes Society, Emirates Cardiac Society, Emirates Society of Nephrology and Emirates Respiratory Society.

 

 

Al-Khaja referred to the importance of the conference and praised the support from H.H. Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, UAE Minister of Finance and president of Dubai Health Authority to the health sectors locally and regionally, and his keenness on supporting the ways of communication between the local health institutions and the international scientific institutes to benefit from their experience in this field.

 

 

“In collaboration with Hamdan Medical Award, the Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office of the WHO will organize the pre-Congress Symposium on Jan. 9. The symposium is scheduled to review the agenda for NCD prevention and control in the Eastern Mediterranean, the experience of some countries in NCD prevention and control, the UAE national program for tobacco control, the UAE national program for NCD control and the ways to be activated on the ground”, AL Khaja said.

 

 

“I am so proud of the high scientific level of the speakers from the UAE, Jordan, UK, Sweden and Cameroon, especially Prof. Jaakko Tuomileh from Finland, the winner of the Grand Hamdan Award in its 6th term 2009-2010 on the topic of diabetes.

 

 

On the other hand Dr. Nooshin Bazargani, consultant cardiologist at Dubai Hospital and a member of the scientific and organizing committees of the conference, said that the scientific program includes five scientific sessions and 19 lectures dealing with many important issues such as pre-diabetes and its impact on public health, diabetes in the Middle East and North Africa, the barriers to stop the diabetes epidemic and the UAE’s plans to tackle the epidemic of obesity.

 

 

“Additionally, the conference will discuss the national strategies that adopt the WHO guidelines for salt and fat intake reduction, hypertension control, the medical viewpoint to government and policymakers for the implementation of the NCD prevention and control, the importance of physical exercise, pharmacological therapies for obesity management, sleep apnea and  cardiovascular diseases, cancers in the UAE, cancer prevention, smoking cessation  in addition to the global need to prevent the chronic kidney diseases and the UAE experience in this field”, Dr. Bazargani added.

 

 

“Four workshops are to be organized within the conference on the usage of the imaging modalities for cardiac assessment of patients with heart failure, will be held in collaboration with the Italian University of Padua, in addition to workshops on simulation training for atrial fibrillation, invasive procedures and pulmonary hypertension”, she added.

 

 

“One of the main objectives of the conference is raising public awareness towards the importance of preventing non-communicable diseases. In this context , Majid Al Futtaim Charity Foundation  is hosting an event to honor the winners in the competition held for the best advertising posters by school students, grades six to nine, on the theme of life style modification to prevent non-communicable diseases. The ceremony will be held at 6 PM on January 9 with the attendance of the school students and their families.

 

 

Worthy to mention that chronic non-communicable diseases are responsible for almost 67% of the total deaths in the UAE, especially that NCD diseases share common risk factors and having one of them increases the risk of the occurrence of another one.