Holiday shoppers at The Dubai Mall have delivered a new Guinness World Records title for a UAE health drive launched to tackle heart-related illnesses, an initiative set up by Benchmark Middle East and Merck Serono Middle East and Near East.

A total of 8,675 mall-goers took blood sugar level checks during an eight-hour diabetes screening yesterday at 40 nursing stations set up by the One Heart Health Community at the start of a campaign to tackle cardiovascular disease.

The previous world record for blood sugar level checks was held by the Turkish Diabetes Foundation who screened 7,024 people over eight hours in Istanbul in 2012.

Engineer Essa Al Maidoor, director general of the DHA, expressed his profound thanks to stakeholders, including the Dubai Diabested Center, Emirates Diabetes Society and the Emirates Cardiac Society and Benchmark.

Al Maidoor said: “At the DHA, it is our aim to carry out health education campaigns to empower the community to make the right choices with regard to their health.

“We are pleased that this campaign has won the world record, and it is our aim to continue such campaigns on a regular basis as part of our commitment to improving community health.  We firmly believe that prevention and early detection are key to ensure a healthier population.”

“We’re very happy to be supporting this initiative because we believe it can achieve so much,” said Dream Samir, managing director at Merck Serono Middle and Near East. “Increasing the awareness of diseases like hypertension and diabetes is the first step towards empowering patients to proactively contribute to their treatment journey.”

Endorsed by Dubai Health Authority, Dubai Diabetes Center, Emirates Diabetes Society and the Emirates Cardiac Society, yesterday’s screening marked the first phase of an ongoing awareness drive which will now aim to claim two more Guinness World Records titles later this year for most blood pressure readings and most cholesterol readings.  

“This was the perfect start for what is a very serious initiative to underline to people from all walks of life in the UAE the risk factors of heart-related illnesses and the importance of a healthy lifestyle,” said Mohamed Hammad, founder and managing director at Benchmark Middle East, the initiator of the One Heart Health Community.

A team of 80 nurses were kept busy yesterday as a steady flow of shoppers stepped up for blood sugar level checks in The Dubai Mall’s Star Atrium, during the public holiday to celebrate Isra Wal Mairaj. - TradeArabia News Service