‘Pakistan ranks fourth among countries with most diabetics’

Pakistan is ranked fourth all over the world and second among 21 countries in the Middle East and North African region for having the highest number of diabetic patients. Around 90 per cent of these cases are reported to have type II diabetes.

More than 415 million people in the world are suffering from diabetes and the number is expected to increase up to 642 million by the end of 2030. Around 80 per cent of diagnosed diabetic patients belong to low- and middle-income countries. These statistics were shared by Professor Dr Shamim Qureshi of the Department of Biochemistry, University of Karachi, on Friday.

She was addressing seminar entitled “Diabetes: Protect Yourself and Your Family”, which was organised by the Department of Biochemistry in collaboration with the University of Karachi Alumni Association (UKAA) Baltimore, Washington, USA. On this occasion, a poster competition was also held to mark World Diabetes Day.

She spoke about the importance of awareness of diabetes by sharing the symptoms of diabetes and urged them to take proper precautions in this regard. Another speaker, Dr Muhammad Zafar Abbasi, from Baqai Institute of Diabetology and Endocrinology, emphasised that treatments like the insulin injection in case of type I diabetes or oral antidiabetic medicines in case of type II diabetes were the only way to control blood sugar level.

He shared that these treatments would produce better results when accompanied by a diet with no sugar and low salt and exercise. He told the audience that the onset of type II diabetes could be delayed by avoiding a sedentary lifestyle, smoking, tobacco use, and fast food full of high fat and triglycerides, and this would control body weight as overweight or obesity increased the risk of type II diabetes.

Dr Sadaf Ahmed, the chief executive officer of the Advanced Education Institute and Research Centre, shared that the theme of World Diabetes Day 2020 was nurses and diabetes. She appreciated the services of male and female nurses in taking care of patients. including diabetic patients.

She said Pakistan still needed more nurses. To fulfil this deficiency, she said programmes should be arranged to change the mindset of the people by telling them that nurses were as important.