Diabetes termed a serious threat to global health

Diabetes is a serious threat to global health that respects neither socioeconomic status nor national boundaries hence its best to prevent diabetes in early stages. These views were expressed by Prof Abul Basit, Director, Baqai Institute of Diabetology & Endocrinology (BIDE), Karachi, and member of the IDF Diabetes Atlas Committee while talking to Business Recorder.

The increasing prevalence of diabetes in Pakistan is a wake-up call. We must do more to prevent type 2 diabetes, diagnose all forms of diabetes early and prevent complications. We must also ensure that every person with diabetes has affordable and uninterrupted access to the care they need.

Prof Basit while clarifying the misconception that diabetes is just the problem of developed countries said that recently published IDF Atlas 9th Editions shows that the Pakistan ranks 4th in the list who has largest number of diabetes patients. Top three are India, China and America respectively. These ranking were given due to the proportion of the population, otherwise I think ratio of diabetes patients in Pakistan may be more than the USA or China. So, it is clear that diabetes is not only the problem of developed countries but it is also becoming a huge problem in under-developed countries now.

In Ancient times, people used to say, it's a disease of the rich people, to some extent it was true as people used to say Mercedez and diabetes goes hand in hand but science has now proved its not only the disease of the rich people but it's a disease of lifestyle now. Earlier, in big cities the markets used to open at 7 or 8'O clock, in villages, people / farmer would wake up at 5 and go to work, but now even farmers go to work at 10am and our markets open at 1pm.

In our childhood we used to have dinner right after Maghrib, now we eat dinner sometimes after Isha, or between 10 pm to 12 am. Kids used to walk to schools, there was no fast food, dependencies on meat were less, people used to have ice cream or colas once in a blue moon. Now we eat less vegetables and more meat, we eat fast food more than the home cooked food, we eat ice cream and drink colas more often. Kids now are going to schools either in school van or private cars. So, this is the problem of lifestyle.

On World Diabetes Day, the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) is releasing new figures that highlight the alarming growth in the prevalence of diabetes around the world. 38 million more adults are now estimated to be living with diabetes globally compared to the results published in 2017. New findings published today in the 9th Edition of the IDF Diabetes Atlas, show that Pakistan is now in the top 10 countries for absolute increase in diabetes prevalence.

The IDF Diabetes Atlas 9th Edition reports that the prevalence of diabetes in Pakistan has reached 17.1%, now 148% higher than previously reported. In 2019, over 19 million adults in Pakistan are estimated to be living with diabetes - putting them at risk of life-threatening complications. 8.5 million of these 19 million, are undiagnosed and, as a result, may be particularly at risk.

We have so far talked about type-2 diabetes. Type-1 diabetes is found more in developing countries like Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland etc, this is because of environmental problem or genetic inheritance. Type-1 diabetes is very rare in Pakistan. For example, if we examine 10 patients daily, only one or two are found with type-1 diabetes. So type1- diabetes is only 2 pc in the country.

So now let's come to your third question what is diabetes. See type-1 and type-2 diabetes are two different diseases. What happens in type-1, when a human pancreas stops working for any unknown reason it stops producing insulin so the only remedy is insulin. It is very common in children and occur due to viral infection and there are few more reasons which science is unable to understand.

The best of example is Pakistani cricket super star Waseem Akram, who is the fittest type-1 diabetes patient. One day during practice he was unable to bowl and felt frequent urination. Upon checking his sugar level was at 300-400. Doctor advises him to immediately take insulin, now he is still fit.