In a press release, the ministry indicates that these diseases are considered among the major public health problems in view of their high prevalence and their constant increase, knowing that their detection and control are still insufficient, despite their heavy impact on the increase in cardiovascular and renal risk. They are therefore a real medical, social and economic concern for Morocco.
It is now clearly established that a sedentary lifestyle, poor eating habits and the obesity that follows are all predictors of cardiovascular risk, in particular the risk of high blood pressure, often associated with type 2 diabetes. when these factors add up in the context of a metabolic syndrome, with a multiplicative effect on the overall cardiovascular risk, underlines the press release.
This national campaign for the prevention of complications due to chronic diseases is therefore justified by the vital need to raise public awareness and to recall the importance of early diagnosis of diabetes and arterial hypertension in people at high risk, which allows fast charging to avoid complications. The management of diabetes and/or arterial hypertension, when it is correct, in fact avoids the development of serious and costly complications and reduces premature mortality.
In this context, the recommendations insist on the importance of smoking cessation as well as on the change of eating habits and the establishment of regular physical activity in order to control one’s weight, these actions being considered as integral parts of the management. of any patient in association with the drug treatment, explains the press release.
It should be recalled that Morocco continues to increase its investments in the care and prevention of diabetes and arterial hypertension in order to ensure access to care for all people suffering from these diseases, which can only be controlled through coordinated and concerted actions between decision-makers, health professionals and the various partners, including the patients themselves, since these diseases involve both individual and collective responsibility. In this regard, the Ministry of Health and Social Protection takes care of more than one million diabetics and more than 1,800,000 hypertensive patients at the level of primary health care establishments.
However, despite the efforts made by Morocco to prevent diabetes and reduce inequalities in access to means of diagnosis and care and to integrate its management into all the services covered by universal health insurance, the situation epidemiology of diabetes and its economic impact remain of great concern.
Indeed, according to data from the ministry, Morocco today has more than 25,000 diabetic children, more than 2.7 million diabetic adults, 49% of whom are unaware of their disease and more than 2.2 million pre-diabetics, knowing further that 56% of people with diabetes suffer from hypertension, an association that exposes them to serious health complications, the statement concludes.