Diabetes, A Big Health Challenge

14th Nov is celebrated as World Diabetes Day so I thought to write something about it. There is no cure for diabetes so far but for sure we can prevent it by changing our lifestyle.

Diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs when either an individuals’s body is unable to produce insuline or canot be used by the body which is being made, this disease if not treated can cause many other disorders. Diabetes also has a strong relationship with many other diseases like Hyptertension, Dyslipidemia, Cardiovascular diseases, Heart Attack, Stroke, Blindness/eye problems, Kidney diseases and neuropathies etc. According to recent statistics 382 million people are suffering with diabetes and this number will reach 552 million by 2030 and 592 million by 2035 and high burden included in this list belongs to low and average income countries. Despite applications of the current treatment strategies for diabetes and its complication, there is still many serious challenges. Diabetes imparts two fold excess risk towards the disorders, such as coronary artery and cardiovascular diseases and hypertension. The disease was of minor significance to world health until a few decades ago, but now considered as one of the main threats to human health in the 21^st century. In the past three decades the number of people diagnosed with diabetes has exploded the records and further increase is expected as a great number of people are still un-diagnosed in low income countries like Pakistan.

It has been recently observed that there is a dramtic increase in rate of diabetes prevalence in Pakistan. Obesity and sessile life style are big risk factors which are also affecting youth of Pakistan. Prevalence of diabetes is very high in cities and town areas of the country, compared to villages. According to World Bank report of 2010, Pakistan is facing a health crisis, due to an incraese rate of diabets, obesity, cardiovascular and other non-communicable diseases. In addition, communicalbe diseases like Tuberculosis and Hepatitis are also big heatlh issues of Pakistan. Recently, dengue is also playing havoic in the country. There is great need to prepare the nation to meet these challenges and in this regard, awareness and education are very important.

According to International Diabetes foundation (IDF) there are 6.7 million known cases of diabetes in Pakistan but as there is huge population which is still unaware about the diseases so according to WHO the number of cases in Pakistan are over 13 million which mean over 10% of population is suffering with diabetes in Pakistan. According to IDF there are 87,354 deaths in Pakistan (2013) are due to diabetes per year as it is single major risk factor for cardiovascular diaseses and many other complications.

Health officials are stressing people to adopt healthy life style (exercise, balance diet, no smoking etc.) to save yourself from this devastating disease. Beside environmental factors, genetics also plays an important role in increasing the chance to develop diabetes (both type 1 and 2). So if the disease run in your family, you have to be more careful with your lifestyle. Diabetes treatment is multibillion dollar industry and several drugs are available in the market which help to control sugar level in blood but so far there is no complete cure of the diseases. But patients should not lose hope as gene therapy, stem cells therapy and regenertive medicine have produced good results and scientists are hopeful that soon they will cure diabetes completely. In gene thearpy, a gene for insulin production is introduced into the patient’s body which produce insulin and control sugar level in the blood. In stem cells therapy, healthy beta cells are produced and introduced (transplanted) into the body which produce insulin as normal cells and hence lower sugar in the blood. Different clinical trials around the world, have produced good results and soon these therapies will be available at massive level. As Pakistan is a country with high diabetes load so we should prepare ourself and should work on these emerging technologies.

National Academy of Young Scientists is working since many years to raise awareness in our socieity about different diseases and especially for diabetes through its Public Health Services (PHS) and Community Education and Awareness Program (CEAP). NAYS Pakistan is publishing a small book with the title “Ziyabatees Kia Hai?” (What is Diabetes?) in which we have listed all type of diabetes, their complications and traetment options. Academy has produced 10,000 such books with the sponsorship of Kashmir Fund DK and they will be distributed for free for public awareness all over the country. In addition, special posters will be produced for quick information about diabetes and seminar will be arranged for public with reference to world diabetes day.

Diabetes is also present in my own family as my mother is suffering from it from the last 10 years. May God bless her health and also to all those who are suffering from it.

For your comments and suggestions

Aftab Ahmad Chattha

President NAYS Pakistan

president@nays.com.pk