Every fourth adult diabetic in Pakistan, seminar told

The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) has ranked Pakistan third in the prevalence of diabetes following China and India. According to the IDF, around 33 million people in the country are diabetics.

Prof Dr Shamim Qureshi of the University of Karachi (KU) Department of Biochemistry said this while recently addressing a seminar titled ‘Access to Diabetes Care’. The expert said that overall, more than 537 million people were suffering from diabetes across the globe. During the Covid-19 lockdown, the world witnessed an increase in the prevalence of type-II diabetes as the pandemic restricted physical activities, causing a rise in the cases of obesity.

Other speakers of the seminar were Dr Muhammad Zafar Iqbal Abbasi from the Baqai Institute of Diabetology and Endocrinology, consultant dietitian Mariam Abdeali and KU Assistant Professor Dr Tooba Lateef.

Dr Abbasi highlighted the significance of standardisation of healthcare establishments in his talk. He said the Second National Diabetic Survey revealed the prevalence of diabetes was 26.19 per cent among the people who were over 20 years. It means that every fourth person was a diabetic in the country, he added. He stated that health facilities were insufficient and diabetes supplies not regular. He called for structured training of health care providers to cope with the huge burden of diabetes.