International conference told Pakistan is facing epidemics of diabetes and obesity
Karachi
International and local diabetic foot experts urged diabetologists and other health experts on Saturday to adopt a multidisciplinary approach to saving the feet and limbs of diabetic patients, saying that by proper treatment of diabetic foot infections (DFIs), doctors and surgeons could not only save the limbs but also the lives of thousands of patients every year.
“Over 70 percent of diabetic patients with amputations due to the diabetic foot die within five years of the surgery, which shows the importance of proper treatment of the diabetic foot and prevention,” Dr Zahid Miyan, a renowned diabetologist and expert of diabetic foot infections in Pakistan, said while addressing a technical session on DFIs.
The technical session was part of the three-day International Diabetes and Endocrine Congress 2016, organised by the Baqai Institute of Diabetology and Endocrinology (BIDE).
The international conference started at a local hotel the other day.
An expert from Tanzania, Dr. Zulfiqarali G Abbass, chaired the session, while Dr Qazi Masroor from Bahawal Victoria Hospital, Bahawalpur, and many other doctors from across the country attended.
Over 50 international experts, including the vice president of the International Diabetes Federation, Akhtar Hussain, the president of the IDF Middle East and North Africa region, doctors from the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Malaysia, Belgium, Norway, Egypt, Turkey and Iran, are participating in the international congress.
As many as 2,000 doctors, including consultant diabetologists, dieticians, nutritionists and surgeons from Pakistan, also have arrived in the city to attend.
Earlier, speaking at the inaugural session of the congress late on Friday night, world renowned diabetologist and IDF President Prof Abdus Samad Shera feared that the number of patients with diabetes would be doubled in Pakistan by 2040, as currently the country was facing an epidemic of diabetes and obesity while around 14 million people would be pre-diabetics but without knowing their condition.
“We are facing two epidemics at the moment, epidemic of diabetes and obesity. Currently, we have around seven million diabetes patients while an equal number of patients are pre-diabetics. We fear that the number of people with diabetes and those on the borderline would be doubled in the next 24 years,: he told the inaugural ceremony of three-day conference.
Prof Samad Shera, who is the chairman of the congress and senior most diabetologist of the world, claimed that lifestyle diabetes or type II diabetes was a initially a symptom-less disease, which silently progressed and a person only kneew about it when it could not be reversed.
“Kindly make it clear that frequent urination, thirst, dryness of the throat and other symptoms said to be associated with diabetes type are the symptoms of type I, which is a genetic and auto-immune disease.
“The diabetes we are facing these days is initially a symptom-less disease which does not show any symptom at least for six years.”
He advised people to eat less and walk more to avoid getting the lifestyle disease, saying people should know that their eating and living habits were resulting in causing them a disease which could not be reversed and could cause them immense problems later in the life.
“Anybody who is an Asian, is over 35 years of age, has a waist of 35 inches or above and has a family history of diabetes is at the risk of getting diabetes.”
To a query, he said gene therapy for the treatment of diabetes was a very costly and distant treatment for diabetes and it was not an immediate solution to problems facing Pakistanis. He added that the people of Pakistan should modify their lifestyle to live a healthy life.
IDF Vice President Akhtar Hussain from Bangladesh deplored that over 65 percent of the world’s diabetics were living in the developing countries and most of them were in the South Asian region. He said the epidemic of diabetes was on the rise in the South Asia.
“The Western world has managed to control this epidemic but we have not the resources and expertise like them.
“We need to educate our people because we can’t treat such a large population with diabetes, who would be a heavy burden on our economies,” he warned.
The vice chancellor of the Baqai Medical University, Dr Zahida Baqai, formally inaugurated the IDEC 2016 and welcomed the foreign delegates and experts, saying that their presence and deliberations would help local experts in learning about treatment and management of diabetes in Pakistan.
The director of the Baqai Institute of Diabetology and Endocrinology, thanked the national and international experts and guests.
