KARACHI, April 26: Physicians and patients at a health awareness programme on Thursday observed that any reduction in the cost of glucose detection tests conducted at laboratories or homes could lead to a better management of diabetes.
A blood sugar camp and public awareness programme for diabetics was organised by the Institute of Diabetes and Endocrinology, Dow University of Health Sciences, the Ojha campus of the university. DUHS vice-chancellor Prof Masood Hameed Khan, the director of the institute, Prof Zaman Shaikh spoke and responded to queries made by the patients.
A couple of patients were of the view that in a situation when about 10 per cent of the adult population suffered diabetes, which caused about five per cent of all deaths globally each year, a timely detection of the disease and its proper management involving doctors, patients and their families, could help reduce the sufferings of the people significantly.
Patients said that the government should ensure not only a regulation on the diagnostic laboratories but also take initiatives for availability of instant glucose test kits at cheap prices.
A patient urged the government to ensure some sort of subsidy or relaxation in the relevant duties and taxes imposed on these kits and machines and also review the price formula for those, if there existed any, so that type-2 diabetics, who needed frequent check-ups, could get some relief.
The DUHS vice-chancellor informed the patients that the cost of strips were already on the DUHS agenda and a government sector scientific research organisation had already been approached for indigenous production of the self-testing kits and strips.
Prof Khan said that the university was working on a plan for massive public awareness related to diabetes and tuberculosis and was considering production of CDs on the subjects and launching of a health channel in due course of time.
During the programme, it was said that people should ensure a periodic check of glucose in their blood and if the level was found higher than the average range then they should not ignore the anomaly as it could lead to cardiac, renal and other serious health problems as well as blindness.
Majority of the diabetes cases are reported as type-2 or adult-onset diabetes in which the body loses its ability to produce insulin. Obesity and lack of exercise are linked with type-2 diabetes, said a speaker, adding that most of the complications were there because of poorly managed diabetes, which remained mostly a genetically transferred disease.
Patients were told that in addition to diet control and change in lifestyle, they should also continue taking medicine and also consult a heart specialist if they had been diabetic for five years or more. Those with a family history of diabetes should go for a diabetes test through laboratories after attaining the age of 40 years, it was suggested.
Patients should take fruits for fibres and not use those in syrup forms or canned as those increase the chances of uncalled for consumption of chemicals and sugars. Mothers during pregnancy should have a continuous check on their sugar levels, otherwise complications could be found in their babies.
Once you feel thirst and hunger frequently and fatigue and need to urinate repeatedly then you should consult a physician immediately. A diabetes patient should avoid taking a mango in the whole at a time, but could take a slice or two, that too along with routine food, provided the glucose level in the blood is under control, suggested another physician.
Earlier, at the inaugural ceremony of the ‘blood sugar camp’, the chief guest, Sindh Local Government Minister Mohammad Hussain remarked that carelessness towards proper medication and doctor's advice were the reasons behind significant increase in number of diabetic patients in the country.He said that once a person turned diabetic he or she had to suffer for long and as such they should not waste their hard-earned money on any quick fix prescription or medicine packages, which were promoted through misleading promotional campaigns. He also called the DUHS to device periodic diabetes awareness programmes in every town of the city.
The director of the NIDE, Prof Shaikh, said that about 600 patients were registered with his institute where they were provided free consultation and charged a nominal amount for some tests and treatment, while patients had to bear the cost of medicines. DUHS vice-chancellor Prof Hameed and Prof Ashraf Sadiq, director of the National Institute of Chest Disease also spoke.
