World Health Day seminar held at FMC

Islamabad: A seminar to mark World Health Day with the theme of diabetes was held here on Thursday at Fazaia Medical College (FMC). Dr. Assad Hafeez (DG Health) was the chief guest on the occasion. Dr. Baseer Achakzai, director nutrition, National Health Programme, Manager National AIDS Control Programme, Dr Lamia Mahmud, representative World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Ghazala Mahmud and Dr. Javed Iqbal Khatak were also included in the speakers list.

Air Vice Marshal (r) Faaiz Amir, vice chancellor of Air University, Major General (r) Salman Ali, principal, Fazaia Medical College and Dr Rukhsana Khan, head of Community Medicine Department were also present at the occasion.

Dr. Assad Hafeez gave perspective of the government on diabetes and said that Pakistan is the leading country as far as diabetes is concerned and we have much younger patients as compared to rest of the world, mostly in rural areas. If we need to reduce diabetes and other non communicable disease we would focus on community awareness, governance, policies, prevention, surveillance and provision of primary health care.

Dr. Baseer Achakzai said that the district, provincial and federal level measures should be taken for diabetes prevention.

Dr Lamia Mahmud said that 14% of population is affected with diabetes in this region. WHO has emphasized on four areas to control diabetes, which are health, diet, tobacco and alcohol control.

There were two presenters from the faculty of FMC, Dr. Ghazala Mahmud, who enlightened the participants on gestational diabetes and Dr. Javed Iqbal Khatak, who shared his knowledge on type II diabetes.