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Warwick begins diabetes study on pregnant mums in Malawi

Warwick Medical School has built up one of the UK’s leading diabetes educational and research programmes over the past ten years. To mark World Diabetes Day (14 November) it is announcing its latest study will investigate the increase of diabetes amongst pregnant women in Malawi.

Dr Paul O’Hare, one of the lead experts in Diabetes at Warwick Medical School, explained:
“One in every four pregnant women in Malawi has HIV. The drugs they take to prevent their babies being born with HIV, may, we believe, give them an added side effect of increasing their risk of developing diabetes.

“Diabetes is fast becoming one of the major health problems on the African continent and we estimate that in the years ahead, it will compete with AIDS and heart disease as the most common causes of early death.”

Warwick Medical School is sending a team of researchers and clinical academics out to Malawi next week (11 November) to set up the study which hopes to investigate and record findings taken from over 1,000 births to establish why diabetes is increasing so rapidly in pregnant women.

As part of this study, two clinical registrars from West Midlands hospitals will also be training midwives and clinicians in Malawi in the most up-to-date obstetric methods to improve treatment and patient care.

Paul added: “This means that our teaching expertise and Diabetes research will be shared with international healthcare professionals so they can go on to deliver high quality diabetes care in their communities and improve the outcome for the fast increasing population of people with type 2 diabetes.”

World Diabetes Day is celebrated on 14 November and helps to highlight the research and treatment being developed.

Notes to Editors:
If you would like to interview Dr. O’Hare, or for further information, contact Kate Cox in the Communications office on +44 (0)2476 150483, m:+44(0)7920 531221 or kate.cox@warwick.ac.uk.