Phone doctors help Bangladesh battle diabetes

Copyright: G.M.B. Akash / Panos

By: Daisy Dunne

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<h1>Phone doctors help Bangladesh battle diabetes</h1>
<h4>By: Daisy Dunne</h4>
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<p><iframe loading="lazy" frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/242580493&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%"></iframe></p>
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Contrary to popular belief, type 2 diabetes doesn’t only affect people in rich countries.</p>
<p>According to the International Diabetes Federation, one of the highest incidence rates in the world can be found in Bangladesh, where <a href="http://www.idf.org/membership/sea/bangladesh">5.9 million adults</a> were living with the disease in 2014.</p>
<p>Rural communities in Bangladesh are particularly vulnerable as they have limited access to diagnostic tools or information on how to avoid contracting diabetes.</p>
<p>In this interview, we speak to UK-based epidemiologist Ed Fottrell, who is targeting the problem by combining community outreach projects with the use of mobile phone technology to spread health information designed to prevent or manage the disease.</p>
<p>He hopes to prove that this integrated approach, called D-Magic, can reduce the disease’s incidence in Bangladesh within just a few years.<div class="related_widget"><h3 class="widgettitle">You might also like</h3><ul><li><a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/multimedia/world-diet-nutrition-agriculture/">Why the world needs a new diet</a></li><li><a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/news/food-report-quality-matters/">Food report says quality matters</a></li><li><a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/multimedia/treating-diseases-killing-syrian-refugees/">New ways to treat the diseases killing Syrian refugees</a></li></ul></div></p>

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<p>This article was originally published on <a href="https://www.scidev.net" target="_blank">SciDev.Net</a>. Read the <a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/multimedia/doctors-bangladesh-diabetes-mobile/" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
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If you are unable to listen to this audio, please update your browser or click here to download [99.3MB].

Contrary to popular belief, type 2 diabetes doesn’t only affect people in rich countries.

According to the International Diabetes Federation, one of the highest incidence rates in the world can be found in Bangladesh, where 5.9 million adults were living with the disease in 2014.

Rural communities in Bangladesh are particularly vulnerable as they have limited access to diagnostic tools or information on how to avoid contracting diabetes.

In this interview, we speak to UK-based epidemiologist Ed Fottrell, who is targeting the problem by combining community outreach projects with the use of mobile phone technology to spread health information designed to prevent or manage the disease.

He hopes to prove that this integrated approach, called D-Magic, can reduce the disease’s incidence in Bangladesh within just a few years.