With the completion of walks and educational festivals nationwide, Cuba held this Monday the World Diabetes Day, today reported Ileidis Iglesias, Director of the National Institute of Endocrinology.

The Cuban specialist informed at a press conference that on coming November 14, activities will be done in all provinces of the country, with the central venue of the actions in the capital, and pointed out that the motto of the day for Cuba is 'With the Eyes Put on Diabetes'.

'The campaign aims to raise awareness in the world's population. In our country we will be focused on prevention actions with researches in public squares to determine risk factors, promotion of nutritional guidance and consultation to treat the diabetic foot,' said Iglesias.

Oscar Díaz, President of the National Technical Advisory Commission of Diabetes, said for his part that the campaign is based on the increase in the non-transmissible chronic disease globally.

For example, in 1980, the estimated number of patients was 108 million, that figure increased exponentially to 415 million this year, and for the year 2040, it is estimated that the medical condition reaches the 642 million people, said Diaz.

The also head of the national group of Endocrinology warned that, in Cuba, the most important risk factors are sedentary lifestyle and obesity, with prevalence rates of 6.1 percent of known cases and 4.2 of detected cases, for a total of 10, 3 percent.

It is the eighth main cause of death in the country, with values that estimate at 9.3 percent pre-diabetic cases; the provinces with the highest incidence are Havana and Matanzas (west), while Granma and Holguin (east) listed with lower rates, added the specialist.

Finally, Dr. Teresa González, responsible for the Center of the Diabetic Care, said that over the past decade has doubled the number of patients in the Antillean nation, although the average number of detection of the disease has remained stable for five years, with values that range from about 20 per 100 thousand inhabitants.

The most important thing for us is to instruct and educate the population about the risk factors for diabetes, and the actions to be performed by the patients to thus improve their quality of life, concluded González.