Haya seeks innovative health care strategy

Princess Haya Bint Al Hussain, wife of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and Chairperson of the Dubai Healthcare City Authority, on Thursday called for a more effective health strategy that focuses on prevention and healthier lifestyles. "It is clear that an effective health strategy that serves all must be far broader than medical intervention," she said in her keynote address read out by Abdul Rahman Mohammad Al Owais, Acting Minister of Health at the Leaders in Healthcare session at the conclusion of the Arab Health Congress. She said both public and private sectors must work on prevention of disease. This can be done, she added, by "raising the level of physical activity, improving the quality of our diets, reducing [the use of] tobacco and other harmful substances and following simple public safety measures". Lifestyle diseases Princess Haya said the most destructive diseases in the region are those "we create with our own behaviour". She warned against ignoring the rising incidence of diabetes and cancer: "The largest single killer here today is Type 2 diabetes and the UAE ranks second in its prevalence globally. In the next 15 years, the incidence of cancer in the Middle East will surpass that in any other region, increasing between 100 and 180 per cent. "These diseases have reached epidemic proportions and are a clear warning to us ... we best not ignore it," she said.