NHO holds media Roundtable Conference on diabetes

… Countdown begins on 2016 World Health Day activities

To mark the 2016 World Health Day (WHD), Africa’s premier health online newspaper, Nigeria Health Online (NHO) is organizing a media Roundtable Conference on diabetes.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has chosen diabetes as the focus for this year’s WHD celebration, marked worldwide on April 7. The NHO Roundtable Conference holds on Tuesday April 5 to help equip the mass media, with vital information on the disease and ensure adequate coverage of the WHD activities in Nigeria.
The main goal for this year’s campaign, according to WHO is to Increase awareness about the rise in diabetes, and its staggering burden and consequences, in particular in low-and middle-income countries. WHO also plans to trigger a set of specific, effective and affordable actions to tackle diabetes. These will include steps to prevent diabetes and diagnose, treat and care for people with diabetes.
WHO and stakeholders in diabetes management will be relying greatly on the mass media to create the needed awareness on WHD, especially diabetes, the focus for the year. A statement by NHO publisher, Mr. Sam Eferaro says the online health newspaper plans is mobilising the Nigerian media to participate actively in the WHD event through vigorous awareness campaign on diabetes.
“This has become necessary in view of the fact that Nigeria ranks among countries with the highest cases of diabetes in the world. According to WHO, Nigeria recorded 1,707,000 cases in 2014, the highest in the African region.
“The conference is aimed at not only highlighting the burden of diabetes in Nigeria but also to examine the management, the nation’s available facilities for diabetes care and prevention. It is essentially a media event featuring major media houses in the country with experts drawn from the Federal Ministry of Health, WHO, leading endocrinologists and other experts involved in diabetes management and care. The goal is to fully sensitize the mass media such that diabetes will be pushed to the front burner in media discourse in the country for a considerable time before and after the WHD campaign,” the statement said.

More details on the Roundtable soon.