KP launches prevention drive against diabetes, other diseases

ISLAMABAD: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa became the first province to be part of the Pakistan Diabetes Prevention Program (PDPP) and announced to include lessons on the prevention of diabetes and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the school-level curriculum as well as holding awareness activities in this regard on a regular basis, the KP health officials said on Sunday.

“It is the right time that instead of teaching the battles of Panipat and other irrelevant historical events, we start teaching our children how to become good and healthy humanbeing. We are going to include the lessons of healthy habits in the school curriculum and take other measures to prevent from the diseases, especially diabetes and obesity”, KP’s DG Health Dr Niaz Muhammad said while signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Pakistan Endocrine Society (PES) at a local hotel.

Special Secretary Health, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Dr Farooq Jameel, President Pakistan Endocrine Society (PES) Dr Ibrar Ahmed, renowned diabetologists Prof. Abdul Basit and Prof. AH Amir were also present on the occasion.

DG Health Dr Niaz Muhammad said that their province is the first federating unit that is going to work simultaneously on the curative and preventive approaches against diabetes and in this regard, millions of rupees are being allocated and spent to treat diabetics and prevent others from the lifestyle-related diseases.

“On the curative side, we are going to establish dedicated diabetes clinics at all the District Headquarter Hospitals (DHQs) in KP, while we are already providing free insulin and medicines to the patients with diabetes in the province. For prevention, we have now become the part of Pakistan Diabetes Prevention Program of PES from today”, he added.

He said in order to initiate preventive measures against diabetes and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs), the KP education department would be taken on board and the lessons on healthy habits, prevention from diseases and living a fit and healthy life would be included in the provincial curriculum at the school level.

Special Secretary Health Dr Farooq Jamil said that health and education were the top priorities of the KP government, which was evident from the health insurance programme, which was first launched in KP where 7.5 million families are entitled to get the free of charge treatment of Rs1 million at hundreds of hospitals across Pakistan, for which the KP government is paying Rs23 billion premium to the insurance company.

“We have also made our tertiary care hospitals autonomous through the MTI law; everybodyvisiting a public health facility is getting free medicine, while our basic health units and other primary healthcare units are going to be functional 24 hours a day in the coming months”, he said, adding that now they were taking lead in initiating the preventive measures against the non-communicable diseases (NCDs) by allowing the Pakistan Endocrine Society (PES) to initiate the preventive measures against the lifestyle-related diseases.

President of Pakistan Endocrine Society (PES) Dr Ibrar Ahmed said the treatment of millions of diabetics was beyond the capacity of endocrinologists in Pakistan and the only way left was to initiate a National Diabetes Prevention Program, which needs federal and provincial governments’ support.

“I am glad that the KP government has responded first and launched the preventive programme by entering into an MoU with the Pakistan Endocrine Society (PES). We now urge the federal government and the remaining provincial governments of Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan to follow KP and start the preventive measures against the epidemic of diabetes”, he added.

Eminent diabetologist Prof. Abdul Basit said if nothing was done by the governments and the people of Pakistan for the prevention of diabetes in the country, every adult would be diabetic in Pakistan after five years and the other countries would call us a ‘sick nation’.

“We have 33 million people with diabetes and our 10 million children are diabetics. If we failed to act now, all of our adults would be diabetic in the next five years”, he warned, adding that all the provincial governments and the federal authorities should become part of the national drive against the prevention of diabetes in Pakistan.

Another renowned diabetologist Prof. AH Amir said without the government support, the prevention from diseases was not possible, adding that the provincial and federal governments should support the PES in its struggle against the prevention of diabetes and allocate resources to prevent the people from premature deaths and disabilities.