The take home message from the opening for DALM2011, the international symposium which focuses on diabetes, obesity and metabolic syndrome currently underway in Doha, Qatar was simple and clear: the Middle East has a very serious diabetes and obesity problem, and that is why the conference is coming here in its first iteration outside the US and Italy.

The other message continuously hammered in was the fact that Qatar in particular, and the Arab states in general, are investing heavily in research related to these disorders since they are important in the region.

That is why I was surprised, and more than a little disappointed, to find that not a single paper presented during the first day of the symposium came from the Arab states. In fact, there was only one paper presented by an Arab researcher, who came from the American University in Beirut.

Arab scientists are featured in the meeting, but only as session moderators or panel discussants.

Javaid Sheikh, dean of Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar (WCMC-Q) argued during the opening session that it made sense to hold the conference in Qatar since the region is one of the most affected when it comes to diabetes. The numbers are consistently higher than most other regions. In fact, six of the 10 countries with the higest percentage of diabetes are Middle Eastern, according to Mahmoud Zirie, head endocrinologist in Hamad Medical Corporation, Qatar.

“This conference is different. It is originally Italian so maybe the Gulf region are not very heavily involved. Maybe the West is more involved more. I’m not sure of the selection criteria for this conference to be honest, But the amount of paper from the Gulf states is not bad at all” he added. Qatar supposedly invests 2.8% of its GDP in scientific research, well above the region’s meager average of 0.2%.

We are part of a worldwide epedimic, of both obesity and diabetes. But it happens that the degree of this epeidmic is worse in the region, particularly in the Gulf," said Ibrahim Salti, the only Arab researcher to present a paper during the conference. The prevalence in the Levant is around half that of the Gulf States, which he attributes to better lifestyles with more exercise and make more healthy eating choices.

But Salti does not think the extend of the problem is well represented in the scientific output of the region. “There is an increasing interest in research in diabetes. Some in Saudi Arabia and some [in Qatar], but it is not up to the standard. We need more.”

We need more funding, more staff, and more emphasis in universities on research, he adds.

“The program we have is still very young. We only started doing research about two years ago,” said Khaled Machaca, associate dean of research at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar. “For example, we have investigators studying the effect of glucose on the endothelial cells which was published. But our goal is not to just publish one or two papers. Our goal is a broad spectrum national programme that will tackle the problem [of diabetes] from the molecular level to the clinical.”