Events

The objective of holiday camps for children and adolescents with diabetes is to create an environment in which they can learn to embrace their condition and its treatment. Achieving and maintaining good blood glucose control is a key aim; the camps provide excellent opportunities for young people to learn and practise diabetes skills and become familiar with the latest techniques.

The third edition of the Diabetes Atlas was launched in December 2006, at the 19th World Diabetes Congress of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) in Cape Town, South Africa. The aim of the Atlas, which has been described as the flagship publication of IDF, is to provide the most recent and accurate information on diabetes in 2007 and provide estimates of the likely impact of the condition up to 2025. Its purpose is to disseminate the most up-to-date and salient facts concerning the scope, impact and burden of diabetes globally and on a regional and country-by-country basis.

In many countries, young people work effectively as advocates for a range of causes, from inner-city regeneration to anti-bullying and smoking cessation. An IDF initiative aimed to engage Youth Ambassadors in diabetes advocacy worldwide and specifically to participate at as many levels as possible in IDF’s global awareness campaign ’Unite For Diabetes’. In this article, representatives from the group describe the principles and objectives of the IDF Youth Ambassadors programme and make a call for increased involvement of young people in diabetes advocacy.

The Philippines, with a population of 76.5 million, is considered a developing country. Health services are provided by the state through health centres, local clinics and hospitals, as well as private-sector health facilities. While WHO recommends that countries should spend at least 5% of their GNP for health, the Philippines health budget is only around 3.4% of the country’s GNP (264 million USD) – compared with the military’s budget of 566 million USD.

According to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), Pakistan had 6.2 million people with diabetes in 2003. By 2025 this number is expected to reach 11.6 million. Another 6 million or more people currently suffer from impaired glucose tolerance. This makes the diabetes population in Pakistan the seventh largest in the world and, if the predictions are accurate, it will take fourth place by 2025. In Pakistan, deaths from diabetes alone are projected to increase by 51% over the next 10 years. These figures make diabetes an epidemic – one which places an enormous

The Diabetes Attitudes Wishes and Needs (DAWN) programme was launched in 2001 with the global DAWN study. Initiated by Novo Nordisk in partnership with the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and an international expert advisory board, the DAWN programme aims to respond to shortcomings in diabetes care; less than half of the people who are diagnosed with diabetes worldwide reach optimal health and quality of life. The 3rd DAWN summit, which was held recently in Florence, Italy, gathered 900 experts, people with diabetes, policy-makers

The International Alliance of Patients’ Organizations (IAPO) is a global coalition of patient groups, representing people of all nationalities and across all disease areas, which promotes patient-centred healthcare. The members of IAPO are organizations that at the local, national, regional and international levels support patients and their families and carers. Emma Rigby describes the objectives, work and achievements of IAPO, and focuses on the promotion of patient-centred healthcare – a central aspect of the Alliance’s mission and

From December 12-15, leaders from the International Society of Nephrology, the International Society of Hypertension, the World Heart Federation, the International Diabetes Federation, and the International Atherosclerosis Society met for a three-day conference on the prevention of vascular diseases, namely diabetes, kidney disease and cardiovascular disease. The aims of the meeting were to bring together all the vascular specialties to lay out the parameters of the chronic disease problem and seek ways to reduce their burden particularly in the developing world.

The increasing global incidence of diabetes continues to provoke a corresponding increase in numbers of disabling and potentially life-threatening complications. Those affecting people’s feet are among the most feared. The amputation of a limb is one of the most costly of the diabetes complications in terms both of health economics and the devastating impact it has on people’s lives.

The enormous impact of the metabolic syndrome on public health, and the exciting progress made in research into this field recently, led to the organization of the ‘1st