Bar-Ilan University has launched a 10-year and $75 million program to fight diabetes in the northern Galilee region, where residents have been found to have a greater chance of developing the disease.
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The initiative is the most ambitious non-governmental attempt to fight diabetes, The Times of Israel reported.
Announced on Tuesday, the project will open a new medical facility and support local governments to combat the disease by encouraging healthy lifestyles and providing health services. The announcement came two days after World Diabetes Day, marked annually on Nov. 14.
Having already acquired a $20 million grant, the university will continue to raise more funds in efforts to manage existing diabetic patients and limit the number of new cases.
The initiative "will address one of the most difficult health problems in the north," Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz said in a speech at the project's inauguration.
Dr. Sivan Spitzer, deputy director of the recently announced SPHERE medical center, said that the facility will spark "a major boost to Israel's efforts against diabetes," The Times of Israel reported.
The center will focus on providing healthy food and health education in schools, building exercise facilities in areas with high rates of diabetes, and increasing healthcare services with a mobile medical unit.
Around one million Israeli citizens of the country's 9.2 million are expected to be diabetic by 2040.
Cases are particularly common in areas with populations who have a lower socioeconomic status, as well as in Arab communities, according to the paper. Both are characteristic of communities in the Galilee, where residents are three times more likely to develop the disease than in other areas in Israel.
Professor Naim Shehadeh, the head endocrinologist of the project, noted that it will also include research towards improving treatments as well as developing cures.
i24NEWS contributed to this report.
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