College of Pharmacy students organized and celebrated World Diabetes Day on November 14, 2017. The event was named ‘Blue circle day’ and was organized as a part of students’ community engagement and outreach activities and was linked to one of the pathophysiology and pharmacotherapy senior courses. The objective of the event was to improve diabetes awareness among participants and to promote early diagnosis and a better adherence to lifestyle modifications and medications. The venue was the main foyer of the university and two neighboring lecture halls.
The session started with welcoming the participants and was followed by the first presentation titled ‘Diabetes over the years’ which had the following topics: historical aspects of diabetes, first case of diabetes, early treatment options, discovery of insulin, and current treatment options for diabetes. The next presentation was titled ‘Brief introduction to diabetes’ and included types of diabetes, symptoms, risk factors, gestational diabetes, complications of diabetes and diabetic diet.
In addition, students also demonstrated few simple physical examination skills that could help pharmacists to assess diabetes complications such as diabetic retinopathy and diabetic neuropathy.
There were also posters depicting the causes, signs and symptoms, and treatment options available for diabetes patients. Students also distributed sugar free foods stuffs, natural fruit juices safer in diabetic patients and exhibited few vegetables and traditional diabetic dietary options proven to be effective.
As a part of health screening activity, students also promoted self-monitoring of blood glucose among participants using glucometer and calculated their body mass indices.
It was nice to see the students actively participating in the event and spreading the awareness on diabetes.
The Dean of the College of pharmacy, Prof. Sherief Khalifa congratulated the participating students for their active involvement and advised them to continue to organize such community engagement events and to reach out to members of the community in public places.