DUBAI, January 13: The International Diabetes Federation’s World Diabetes Congress held in Dubai last December received 15,100 participants, making it the largest congress on IDF’s records.The congress, took place for the first time in the Middle-East region and of the 15,100 participants recorded, 13,100 were delegates and 2000 were exhibitors. The number of participants in Dubai showed a 20 per cent increase in the number of participants received at previous World Diabetes Congresses. The last two conferences which were held in 2006 in Cape Town, South Africa and in 2009 in Montreal, Canada attracted 12,000 participants each. Qadhi Saeed Al Murooshid, Director-General of the Dubai Health Authority said, “This achievement reflects the success of the Emirate in hosting prestigious international conferences and exhibitions and we are proud of this success.” He said that the Emirate was able to achieve this success possible because of the vision of its leaders. Participants from 176 countries joined the congress, the top ten countries were India, UAE, China, Italy, UK, Germany, USA, Spain, France and Pakistan. In terms of participants per region, the highest participants (32 per cent) were from the European region, followed by 19 per cent of the participants from the MENA region.
