The Ministry of Health unveiled a new drug that will help diabetic patients, and it is used for the first time in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states.

The new drug helps patients control their diseases better, particularly those of the type-2, who suffer from obesity.

Head of the Internal Diseases Department at Mubarak Al-Kabir Hospital Dr. Nabila Abdullah warned - before a host of doctors from the Ministry of Health and private sector at a medical symposium - of the soaring number of type-2 diabetics by 20 percent, bringing them obesity, which is one of the main health problems in the country.

She added that though there is a widespread notion that diabetes affects the blood sugar metabolism, it is also much higher related to heart diseases and strokes more than smoking and high cholesterol rates.

Meanwhile, head of the diabetes unit at the Amiri hospital Dr. Abdulnabi Al-Attar said that high rates of diabetes affliction in Kuwait is well-known, which is considered, along with other GCC states, among the top-10 most afflicted countries worldwide.

Further, he said that the scientific development that helps discover new remedies to chronic diseases, foremost among them is diabetes, gives hope to patients, making clear that this new drug was used before in US and Europe with no side effects in relation to overweight.

As for Dr. David Stern, one of the world-renowned diabetes specialists, he said that one of the functions of the new drug is that it works as a catalyst for using the stored-up body energy.

He added that the drug works through a method which increases the level of a hormone that distributes food substances within the body, while reducing the level of another hormone that catalyzes body to reduce more sugar instead of burning its sugar stockpile.