Doctors alarmed by rising diabetes rate

QUETTA:

Pakistan has reached third in world ranking with the highest number of people living with diabetes and treating such a large number of people is a threat to the economy because billions are spent on the treatment, said speakers during a workshop on ‘non-communicable diseases’ organized by Pakistan National Heart Association (PANAH) in Quetta.

PANAH General Secretary and Director Operations Sanaullah Ghumman hosted the session. Dr Muhammad Nasimullah, Director Institute of Public Health Quetta, Assistant Advocate General Balochistan, Nadeem Sajjad, Registrar Health Services Academy Islamabad, Dr Ali Nasir Bugti, Dr Noor Qazi, Dr Wahid Baloch, Provincial Manager USAID, Halima Bano, President Balochistan Union of Journalists Salman Ashraf, Shehzad Ali Khan, vice chancellor, Health Services Academy, Munawar Hussain, consultant Food Policy Program, Global Health Advocacy Incubator, and others participated.

Masood Rehman Kayani, Professor Abdul Basit, general secretary Diabetes Association of Pakistan, Afshan Tehseen Bajwa, Chairperson National Commission on the Rights of the Child and others addressed the workshop.

Journalists, representatives of civil society organizations, lawyers and a large number of government departments attended.

Sanaullah Ghumman, general secretary and director operations of PANAH welcomed the participants and said that PANAH spreads awareness related to different diseases to common people and policymakers. He said that nearly 80 per cent of deaths from non-communicable diseases are due to heart, diabetes, cancer and respiratory aliments.

He said that sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs) are one of the major diet related causes of obesity and these NCDs.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 30^th, 2021.