The day is just about here. As in previous years, it is important that we share a unified message. The theme selected for World Diabetes Day campaigns 2009 to 2013 is ‘Diabetes Education and Prevention.’

The campaign slogan this year is: “Understand Diabetes and Take Control”.

This is a message about empowerment through education. For governments, it is a call to implement effective strategies and policies for the prevention and management of diabetes. For healthcare professionals, it is a call to improve knowledge. For the general public, it is a call to understand the serious impact of diabetes and know, where possible, how to avoid or delay the disease and its complications.

The key messages of the campaign are:

• Know the diabetes risks and know the warning signs
• Know how to respond to diabetes and who to turn to
• Know how to manage diabetes and take control.”

Four aspirational goals drive the campaign:

• Every government should implement effective strategies and policies for the prevention and management of diabetes.
• Every person with diabetes should receive education and support to help them manage their diabetes.
• Everyone should know the warning signs of diabetes, how to prevent or delay the complications and what action to take to prevent or delay type 2 diabetes.
• Every country should celebrate World Diabetes Day.

We are calling on the global diabetes community to lobby for action to make these goals a reality.

Follow the campaign minute by minute

As the countdown accelerates, we are receiving a constant flow of lighting confirmations and updates about planned events. There are just too many to list here. At the time of writing this message, we have 576 lightings confirmed and over 320 events listed.

For all the latest information, please keep an eye on the campaign website (http://www.worlddiabetesday.org) and twitter account (http://www.twitter.com/WDD). We’ll provide you with the updates as they come in.

Your ideas help inspire action. Please register your event

Every year, people around the world come up with many different ways to involve the local community, engage the local media, and raise awareness of key diabetes issues among decision makers and the general public.

The majority include some common elements as part of their celebrations:

• Promotion of the blue circle as the global symbol for diabetes
• Use of the colour blue (pantone colour 279 or as near as possible)
• An element of fun

Your ideas help inspire action. Register your event now on the World Diabetes Day website.

India puts diabetes in the media spotlight

In the days counting down to World Diabetes Day, India’s leading news channel CNN-IBN is planning to broadcast a week-long series of programmes that put the spotlight on the diabetes epidemic, including a half-hour special on 14 November.

CNN-IBN presenters will support our call to ‘Wear and Share’ the diabetes circle by wearing the blue circle pin on World Diabetes Day.

One episode in the series will feature IDF President Jean Claude Mbanya explaining the challenges faced by developing countries like India and China as the diabetes epidemic continues to explode across Asia.

The channel’s previous reports on the IDF Diabetes Atlas and the IDF World Diabetes Congress in Montreal can be viewed at this link: http://tinyurl.com/ibndiabetes.

India has the highest number of people with diabetes, with 50.8 million people in the country now living with the disease.

JDRF helps drive World Diabetes Day activities

The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), the world’s largest charitable funder and advocate of type 1 diabetes research, is encouraging the public to learn about type 1 diabetes and its complications by observing World Diabetes Day.

JDRF lightings in US to include Empire State Building

In the US, JDRF will mark World Diabetes Day with numerous events, including media outreach, essay contests on “What Does a Cure Mean to Me?”, and local fundraising activities. JDRF is helping “Bring Diabetes to Light” by asking its members to light blue candles. The organization is also behind the lighting of many landmarks and monuments throughout the United States, including the Empire State Building in New York, Hotel Le Cirque in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the Sun Trust Financial Center in Tampa, Florida.

JDRF to help social networkers go blue

In the UK, JDRF is giving Facebook and Myspace users worldwide the opportunity to show their support by turning their avatar blue for World Diabetes Day. Visit http://www.jdrfaware.com/goBlue.aspx to find out how.

Austin turns airwaves blue for World Diabetes Day

As part of their media outreach for World Diabetes Day, the dynamic team behind the activities and lightings in Austin, Texas, have partnered with local radio station 103.5 BOB FM to run advertising spots throughout the week leading up to November 14.

Not satisfied with leaving it at that, the people at BOB FM wanted to do more and came up with a novel way of joining the global campaign to bring diabetes to light. Every hour on November 14, BOB FM will play a song that has blue in the title and raise considerable awareness among listeners by explaining why. So on 14 November, from the Blue Moon of Kentucky to Blue Bayou, from Blue Suede shoes to Blue Velvet, and from Blue Monday to Blue Ronda à la Turk, Radio BOB will be supporting diabetes and airing material to suit all tastes.

IDF video channel sees launch of awareness short

We’ve just launched a one-minute film setting the stage for World Diabetes Day on 14 November. Entitled “Understand Diabetes, Get Involved”, the clip can be viewed on the WDD YouTube channel.

Watch the short and leave us your comments. Please feel free to post it on your website, blog, discussion forum and social networking pages. Help spread the diabetes awareness message as widely as possible

Predictors of Pharmacy Students’ Intentions to Monitor Diabetes 

http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/JPPS/article/view/4317

Announcing the diabetes blue circle ‘Wear and Share’ campaign

Have you recently snapped a picture of a Hollywood or Bollywood celebrity wearing the blue diabetes circle pin? How about a sporting megastar, a world leader or rock god? If you have, we need that picture now for our World Diabetes Day wall of fame. It’s my guess, however, that you might not have found that photo opportunity just yet.

In fact, hold on a minute and ponder the following question: “Where are all the A-list celebrities for diabetes?”

Recent figures from the IDF Diabetes Atlas show that 285 million people now have diabetes worldwide. The disease is a leading global cause of vision loss, heart attack, stroke, kidney failure and amputation. At a grim four million lives lost a year, diabetes is also a leading cause of death. So where are the big-name celebs rallying behind our cause? Wherever they are, please ask them to step forward, we need their help. And if they do, please make sure you have your camera at the ready to capture the moment.

World Diabetes Day, however, is not all about the glitterati. It’s about diabetes representative organizations and individual champions making a difference. So we’re asking everyone to step forward and share a photo of themselves or others wearing the blue circle symbol of diabetes. You don’t have to be famous to get on our wall of fame. Whoever you are and whatever your link to diabetes, we want a snapshot of you wearing the pin. Who knows? Maybe one day we can put your picture up on the wall right alongside your favourite TV personality.

If you don’t have the pin, no problem – any kind of blue circle alternative will be welcome. After all, we wouldn’t want to cramp your creative instincts.

To help us put diabetes in the picture, join the global wear and share challenge. It’s simple, all you have to do is:

• Ask a friend, a family member or indeed one of your many celebrity contacts to wear the diabetes symbol. Then capture the moment on film.
• Post the image on the World Diabetes Day website.
• Leave the rest to us. We’ll put your picture up on our diabetes wall of fame and share it through the World Diabetes Day museum.The blue diabetes pin is the must-have accessory for anyone involved in the diabetes cause. Pins are available in packs of 10 (enough for every one of your celebrity friends!). Read more about the diabetes circle at http://www.diabetesbluecircle.org.

Diabetes UK, along with six other diabetes charities in the UK, is taking part in the World Diabetes Day Monument Challenge and we are asking people to join in by lighting local landmarks and buildings in blue on or around Saturday 14 November.

How can people get involved?

If you are interested in helping us by getting a local landmark lit up in blue please email worlddiabetesday@diabetes.org.uk or visit our World Diabetes Day section for further information.

Why blue?

Blue represents World Diabetes Day because it is the official colour of the logo and of the UNite for Diabetes campaign which was instrumental in the United Nations’ resolution recognising diabetes as a major threat to global health.

The other six diabetes charities taking part in the Monument Challenge are International Diabetes Federation, Juvenile Diabetes Research Federation, Insulin Dependent Diabetes Trust, Diabetes Research & Wellness Foundation, Input, and Children with Diabetes Advocacy Group.

What is World Diabetes Day?

World Diabetes Day aims to raise awareness of diabetes and the impact that it has on the 250 million people with diabetes around the world.

2010 theme

This year the theme of World Diabetes Day is ‘Diabetes Education and Prevention’. In the UK, there are 2.5 million people diagnosed with diabetes and this number is estimated to rise to 4 million by 2025.

Source
Diabetes UK

Written by Amy Garber

In 1985, the best data available suggested that 30 million people had diabetes. Fast-forward 15 years and the numbers were revised to just over 150 million. Today, less than ten years on, new data launched last week show that a staggering 285 million people are now living with diabetes. The latest figures from the IDF Diabetes Atlas 4th Edition indicate that people in low and middle-income countries are bearing the brunt of the epidemic. Media coverage of the figures sent the disturbing news around the globe through print and broadcast media.

All the latest data are available online free of charge. Visit the website so that you can find the latest figures to support your World Diabetes Day campaign (http://www.diabetesatlas.org). Follow our data tweets through http://twitter.com/wdd.

In a passionate speech, incoming IDF President Professor Jean Claude Mbanya highlighted the need to increase diabetes awareness and deliver health education to make sure that the newly diagnosed are guided along a path of treatment and informed self-care that empowers them to avoid or delay the potentially devastating consequences of diabetes.

He called for increased funding for diabetes and other non-communicable diseases, for greater integration of healthcare systems to cope with the growing burden and for concerted effort to place essential medicines within reach of all people living with diabetes. He demanded that accidents of history and geography be irrelevant in deciding who can access diabetes care and who cannot.

President Mbanya gave praise to the grass roots action that brings diabetes to light on World Diabetes Day.

Read the full speech.

World Diabetes Day (WDD) is celebrated every year on November 14. The World Diabetes Day campaign is led by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and its member associations. It engages millions of people worldwide in diabetes advocacy and awareness. World Diabetes Day was created in 1991 by the International Diabetes Federation and the World Health Organization in response to growing concerns about the escalating health threat that diabetes now poses. World Diabetes Day became an official United Nations Day in 2007 with the passage of United Nation Resolution 61/225. The campaign draws attention to issues of paramount importance to the diabetes world and keeps diabetes firmly in the public spotlight. This year sees the first of a five-year campaign that will address the growing need for diabetes education and prevention programmes.

Diabetes Education and Prevention is the World Diabetes Day theme for the period 2009-2013. The campaign slogan for 2009 is “Understand Diabetes and Take Control”. Diabetes is difficult.