Dr Abdus Samad Shera says insulin should be injected either in the abdomen, leaving two inches space around the belly button or in front of the thighs
Karachi
Over 80 percent patients of Type-I and Type-II diabetes in Karachi and rest of the country are receiving insulin in a wrong manner, injecting it either in the calf or in their arms, which often leads to amputation of arms and legs, said renowned diabetician Prof Dr Abdus Samad Shera on Saturday.
“Insulin should be injected either in the abdomen, leaving two inches space around the belly button or in front of the thighs. Unfortunately, majority of doctors, paramedics and nurses are not aware of the correct sites of injecting insulin and misguide the patients in this regard”, he said while giving a special interview regarding growing incidence of type-II diabetes and its management in Pakistan.
“A few years back, we used professional actors and sent them to the OPDs of major public and private hospitals in Karachi to get insulin injected in their bodies. Doctors handed these [dummy] patients over to nurses and ward boys and they injected insulin as it was some kind of vaccine, which could be injected to any part of the body”, he disclosed, adding that insulin should only be injected in an area where subcutaneous tissue was present beneath the skin.
The doctor said he saw a young man of around 26 years of age who walked into his clinic by holding hand of his mother as he could not see because the patient was receiving insulin wrongly for years that led to blindness, while another young of 18 years of age, lost his leg due to gangrene as he was advised by his physician to inject insulin in his calf.
Dr Shera, who is the honorary president of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and received several national and international awards for his services to the ailing humanity, deplored that even a vast majority of doctors, paramedics and people associated with medical profession were not educated about diabetes and creating immense problems for patients and their attendants.
“We are facing an epidemic of diabetes in Pakistan and in order to control it, we need mass education of our people. I believe in six Ps: education of policymakers, physicians and paramedics, patients, public, press and electronic media and partnership of all these people to manage and control diabetes in Pakistan”, he informed.
According to him, Pakistan’s main problem was type-II diabetes, which is a lifestyle disease and remains silent for around six to eight years and the patient feels no symptoms of the disease until he is diagnosed with full-blown type-II diabetes.
“Frequent urination, excessive thirst and weight loss are not the symptoms of type-II diabetes. These are symptoms of type-I diabetes that is very rare in Pakistan and in the Asian region”, Prof Shera explained, adding that patients with type-II or lifestyle disease remain without any symptom for six to eight years and the disease grips them silently during this period.
“In order to know if you are going to get type-II diabetes or not, kindly check if you are over 30 years of age, your waist is more than 35 inches, you have family history of having diabetes and you are of Asian origin. If all these answers are in affirmative, you are going to become diabetic sooner or later”, he informed.
He deplored that doctors and physicians, treating patients with diabetes, were not in the habit of reading and learning and rely more on the information provided by the pharmaceutical companies, saying medicines in the management and treatment of diabetes were changing by every hour but local doctors were not ready to keep them abreast of latest developments in their field of medicine.
Type-II diabetes was very common in developing countries like Pakistan as over 80 percent of the type-II diabetes patients were in the developing countries, Dr. Shera informed, adding that genes have very important role in causing this type of diabetes as there is “something wrong” with the genes of people with Asian origin, which results in causing them type-II diabetes in the later years of age.
“Genetic predisposition and being obese are the major reasons behind causing type-II diabetes in people in the developing world”, he informed and advised people to adopt healthy lifestyle, walk regularly for at least 30 minutes a day and eat a balanced diet to remain fit.
To a query, he said patients diagnosed with diabetes should only visit qualified physicians instead of going to faith-healers, magicians and practitioners of alternate medicines as they would make their lives worst and lead them to painful death instead of providing them any relief.
“I have prepared an informative booklet about diabetes in simple Urdu language that answers most of the questions about this disease. This booklet is equally informative for both patients and doctors as I believe that through correct information and education, a patient with diabetes can manage his health condition and live a normal life like normal people”, he added.
