First Global Summit on looming co-epidemic of diabetes and tuberculosis organised

Bali: The first Global Summit on the looming co-epidemic of Diabetes and Tuberculosis begin today in Bali. The summit is organised by the Union against tuberculosis and lung disease along with Government of Indonesia and World Diabetes Foundation.
A diverse group of political leaders, healthcare practitioners and affected communities gathered in Bali to map a global strategy against the looming TB-diabetes co-epidemic.

Anand Madhab, CEO of Jagran Pehel was the NGO partner invitee and Mukesh Kejriwal from Dainik Jagran is the media partner invitee of the two-day event.

While addressing the event, Anand Madhab asserted that the role of media to counter the looming co-epidemic of TB-DM is crucial and  Jagran Pehel is currently working on the implementation of the model awareness campaign.

“For an effective mass outreach, we need to engage media from the very inception of a programme. We need media to raise awareness to influences behavior and generates public opinion. All such social problems have to be addressed by the media and newspapers for the society,” Madhab added.

“TB and diabetes are two of the world’s leading causes of death and disability. Both ‘TB and diabetes’ exact significant economic costs on society, including both the direct costs of healthcare and indirect costs of disability, lost productivity, forgone investment in human and physical capital, and death. Despite strong evidence to confirm a link between TB and diabetes mellitus; there is very little knowledge amongst people,” he said.

He concluded by a brief presentation on the 360degrees awareness program run by Jagran Pehel. He said that Jagran Pehel (NGO), has partnered with Jagran Group, one of the major media conglomerates of the country to address various social causes and create awareness, raise public debate and thereby bring policy change.

After convening a two days Summit this week in Bali, the Indonesian Ministry of Health, together with the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Health and the World Diabetes Foundation, today signed the Bali declaration, uniting more than 100 global health officials and experts behind a global campaign to fight the twin scourge of TB and diabetes.