The Madras Diabetes Research Foundation (MDRF), the Chennai-based leading diabetes research institution, has launched a Rural Diabetes Project, the first of its kind in India, in collaboration with the World Diabetes Foundation (WDF) in Tamil Nadu.

The four-year project, with the financial support of the German based non-profit oriented non governmental organization WDF, will focus on primary, secondary and tertiary levels of diabetes prevention along with spreading of awareness among the rural population.

The project includes plans to launch a mobile unit for conducting tests and to extend telemedicine facility for a greater understanding of the problems associated with diabetic complications. The study aims to screen for diabetes and diabetes complications in the rural areas with particular respect to eye and foot complications using telemedicine as a novel tool.

In the project with four phases, the MDRF will set up a Rural Diabetes Centre in the village to monitor and treat diabetes, which will also act as a Nodal Rural Centre for Non Communicable Diseases (NCD) and may offer specialized diabetes care, informed Dr. M Rema Mohan, Vice President, MDRF and the principal investigator of the project in a press conference. The new centre will be set up in an area of 13.5 acres of land provided by a philanthropist at Chunampet, she explained.

While the second phase involves education and training for local women, health workers and self help groups for dissemination of diabetes knowledge, the third and fourth phases will carry out screening or diabetes and diabetic complications, their treatment and implementation of primary prevention, added Rema.

The project is expected to produce an outcome of disseminating awareness among 2 lakh people in the village, screening 50,000 individuals for diabetes and Impaired Glucose Tolerance (IGT) and screening 3000 diabetic subjects for complications. In the total expected investment of around Rs 5.20 crore, WDF will extend a financial support of Rs 2.20 crore (500,000 USD). The MDRF and Dr. Mohan's Diabetes Specialities Centre will invest an amount of Rs 3 crore.

"We will extend this project to other villages also, if we find the project is successful. The prevalence of diabetes in rural India has increased in a breathtaking hike of 400% within 30 years. The number of people with diabetes in India is actually higher in rural areas, around 21.6 million, when compared to urban areas which comes around 16.8 million," Dr. V Mohan, one of the principal investigators of the project and President of MDRF said.

The intersectoral project, in collaboration with National Agro Foundation for gathering farmers and villagers at Chunampet for dissemination of diabetes awareness will also be supported by the Indian Space Research Organisation, through facilitating satellite for telemedicine centre, he added.