Call to ensure timely diagnosis

Prof Dr AK Azad Khan, chairman of the organising committee of BADAS-Sir Ganga Ram SAARC Diabetes Conference 2011, speaks during the closing ceremony of the conference in the city's Ruposhi Bangla Hotel yesterday.Photo: STAR

With a call for ensuring timely diagnosis of diabetes as prevention is the most effective way to deal with the disease, now at epidemic levels, the BADAS-Sir Ganga Ram SAARC Diabetes Conference 2011 ended yesterday.
The two-day conference was jointly organised by Diabetic Association of Bangladesh and Sir Ganga Ram Hospital of Delhi, India, with support from Novo Nordisk, a pharmaceutical company of Denmark, in the city's Ruposhi Bangla Hotel.
Presenting a paper, Dr Prasad Katulanda, a Sri Lankan diabetes prevention expert, said, “Under the iceberg of diabetes we have pre-diabetes, the early stage of diabetes.
“If not controlled, pre-diabetes will definitely develop into diabetes and then diabetes will lead the patient to death.”
The number of pre-diabetic patients is larger than that of diabetic patients, he said.
Obesity and hypertension are both symptoms of pre-diabetes, said Pakistani diabetes expert Dr Abdul Basit, adding that around 10 million children in his country are overweight.
The conference organising committee Chairman Prof Dr AK Azad Khan presented a paper on Bangladesh's factory workers, of whom, around 12 percent are diabetic while 28 percent are pre-diabetic.
“Diagnosis is the first step in prevention of the diabetes epidemic,” said Prof AH Zargar, an Indian diabetes expert.
Investigations revealed that diabetes claims a life every eight seconds, not directly, but through infections, renal failure or cardiovascular diseases, said speakers.
Controlling diabetes can help a patient live longer, said Zargar, stating that life expectancy of those in control rose between 60 and 62 years during 1996 to 2006 from 50 and 55 years during 1985 to 1996.
Speakers repeatedly emphasised creating awareness through mass media and launching campaigns against urban lifestyles like dependence on fast food and spending time watching television and playing computer games.
They also underscored the necessity to adopt healthy food habits, daily exercise, screening schoolchildren for diabetes and introducing diabetes education into school curriculum.