Rising diabetes burden puts K-P health system under stress

A leading endocrinologist based in Peshawar has sounded alarm about lack of capacity of current health infrastructure in the K-P province to handle an ever increasing number of diabetic patients.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Head of Department of Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases, Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC), Peshawar Professor Dr Azizul Hasan Aamir said that though we have enough endocrinologists to interact with the diabetic patients and a running insulin bank as well, still we do not have any proper and extended infrastructure to deal the enormous flow of diabetic patients every year.

In addition to the facilities that have already been provided to the patients, we still need more in terms of elaborate infrastructure and we have written to the provincial government in this regard, he added.

He said that the causes of diabetes include obesity, urbanization, an aging population, decreasing level of physical activity, family history, hypertension, improper diet and, more importantly, no proper education about the ailment.

He added that a little change in lifestyle can lead to a better life by maintaining prudent diet, doing regular exercise and, more importantly, getting educated on how to head off the onset of disease.

He said that diabetes can be prevented in the early stages of its diagnosis, while early diagnosis of the disease and a pertinent care of all types of diabetes can avoid all types of complications associated with the disease.

Diabetes prevalence has significantly increased since 2019 in Pakistan as it has now reached the mark of 33 million diabetic adults with an increase of 70 per cent in 2021, according to International Diabetes Federation (IDF).

IDF ranked Pakistan first in terms of increasing diabetes patients with a statistical ratio of 30.8 per cent in 2021 followed by French Polynesia with 25.2 per cent and Kuwait with 24.9 per cent.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 25^th, 2022.