Rotary clubs join forces to fight diabetes

Posted on April 17, 2008 at 02:29 PM by IDF News Team in Global Diabetes News.

In Mexico, the Rotary Clubs of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and the Rotary Club of Tallahassee, Florida have joined forces to combat diabetes, a leading cause of death in the country. They plan to do this by:

• sponsoring an annual bilingual diabetes conference to increase awareness of diabetes in Mexico.
• collaborating with healthcare professionals and local opinion leaders to formulate strategies to provide around 500 poor villages with the tools required to combat diabetes.
• instituting a programme to train local primary care physicians in the detection and treatment of diabetic retinopathy, the most common cause of blindness.
• purchasing a digital retinal camera for the San Miguel General Hospital, to diagnose treatable, early-stage lesions on the retina caused by diabetes.

The plan begins with the First Annual Diabetes Conference in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico on April 10-12, 2008. The conference will provide a forum for Mexican health-care professionals and local opinion leaders to formulate strategies and develop action plans. The event will also serve as a springboard for training local primary care physicians in the detection and treatment of diabetic retinopathy. Topics that will be addressed by the conference include diabetes as a global problem, diabetic retinopathy screening and eye treatment equipment, hypertension issues, diabetic nephropathy, gastric lap-band surgery, and the role of centres affiliated with the Asociacion Mexicana de Diabetes (AMD).

Speakers at the conference include Dr. Larry Deeb, Immediate Past President of the American Diabetes Association and a member of the Rotary Club of Tallahassee, Dr. Juan Rosas Guzman, President of the Latin American Diabetes Association, and Dra. Elvia Rodriquez Villalobos, Medical President of the Asociacion Mexicana de Diabetes.

For more information, visit www.smarotaryclub.org/diabetes.