• Submitted by: admin
• Events
• Havana
• International
• Health and Medicine
• 11 / 14 / 2007

Diabetes Day is celebrated every November 14 around the world as a way to draw attention to the growing illness and its consequences. This year there is a special emphasis on the care required by children and teenagers with the disease.

Several hundred Cubans will join representatives from other countries at the Havana Convention Center from Monday to Friday for the 13th Latin American Diabetes Congress which will focus on prevention.

Professor Oscar Diaz Diaz, head of the scientific committee of the Latin American Diabetes Association, said Cuban specialists will present results from their effort to detect diabetes and pre-diabetes patients as well as the state of programs to attend affected children and teenagers and the development of centers for treatment opened in recent years.

The use of a new medicine developed by Cuban laboratories for treating diabetes of the foot will also be presented.

People with diabetes of the pancreas stop producing insulin and as a result, glucose accumulates in the blood and damages the blood vessels, nerves and some organs. Type one diabetes (insulin-dependent) is the most frequent among children and teenagers, causing a total lack of insulin.

Source: José A. de la Osa