KARACHI, Nov 29: Speakers at a seminar on Tuesday said that diabetes was a disease leading to huge monetary losses to countries and reduced productive lives of individuals.

Like many healthcare facilities and professional bodies of doctors, the Diabetic Clinic of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), also organized a seminar to celebrate the World Diabetes Day here on Tuesday at its premises.

The Diabetic Day is internationally observed on Nov 14 every year. The motto for this year was “Put feet first-prevent amputation”.

It is said that Pakistan is included in the list of ten countries where the number of diabetes patients was significantly high-eighth position with 4.3 million patients-which is feared to rise up to 14.5 million in 2025 and thus pushing up Pakistan at 4th position.

Experts said that diabetes was the number one cause of morbidity and mortality throughout the world and in a number of cases it led to marked disability and was also the top cause of amputation due to medical reasons which led to marked disability.

At the scientific session, Prof Ghulam Mehboob, Head of department of Orthopaedics, JPMC, talked about diabetic foot ulcers and mentioned that any carelessness on the part of patient or his doctor led to amputation.

The executive director of JPMC, Prof Mashoor Alam, said that diabetes was a disease of over nutrition, combined with decreased physical activities. There is a pandemic of obesity leading to diabetes even in children, he added.

He said that in 2003 the number of people with diabetes was recorded as 194 million in the world, which was estimated to rise up to 333 million by 2025. While saying that diabetes could be prevented or its complications could be reduced or averted by taking measures in time, Prof Mashoor said that the major part of the GNP was being used for diabetes patients as the government had to establish facilities and ensure provision of equipment and manpower for the prevention and control of the diseases and other malfunctioning of human organs due to the disease.

Prof Asim, a senior nephrologist at the Kidney Centre highlighted the renal involvement in diabetic patients and said that 33 per cent of the cases of end stage renal diseases were caused due to diabetes, which led to dialysis, certainly a highly expensive process.

Dr Fauzia Ali, assistant professor at the JPMC, talked about the role of anaesthesia in diabetic patients, while they were operated upon for wounds or other complications.

Prof Azhar Masood Farooqui, executive director of NICVD, was the chief of the programme. Dr Fauzia Korejo, Dr Shafat Mustafa, also spoke on the occasion. Some of the patients registered at the JPMC were also given gifts for having good glycaemia control for a longer duration.