Diabetes is turning to be a global societal catastrophe. At present over 425 million people are living with diabetes, of which one-third are people older than 65 years and are largely type 2 diabetes. The estimates[1] suggest that over a million children and adolescents below the age of 20 are affected with type 1 diabetes. By the end of 2017, four million deaths were reported as result of diabetes and its complications. The 80% of disease burden is carried by low and middle-income countries.
International Diabetes federation, in its eighth atlas edition 2017 reports that India and China are at the epicentre of diabetes crisis in South-east Asia region. With Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, India makes about 99% of regions total adult diabetes cases. India is expected to produce 134 million cases in 2045 rising to rank 1 from rank 2 in 2017 with 73 million cases. India is also second highest with undiagnosed cases of diabetes with 42 million cases (58% proportion). Disease morbidity is as high to be explained with 1 million deaths attributable to diabetes in the county. What is alarming is the rising burden in children and adolescents below 20 years of age in the country. The prevalence of diabetes in adults is 8.8% and is variable across states. The burden is on the rise in north-east states alongside other non-communicable and communicable diseases. The prevalence in state of Assam alone is within 6% – 10%.
The aetiology is rapid urbanization, unhealthy diet, increasing sedentary lifestyles with inadequate resources to provide preventive and medical care have resulted in higher rate of diabetes in population. Early diagnosis and treatment are key to prevent complications and achieve healthy outcomes. Most of the cases of diabetes are preventable[2] through regular physical activity and diet modification. Its chronic nature has the potential to cause devastating personal suffering and pushes families into poverty. With current trends in cost of seeking diabetes care, financial burden will continue to expand with growing number of diabetic people. Hence, it becomes very important to screen, diagnose and treat the disease timely. If detected early and treated, it will reduce both cost and health complications.
It is a must to raise awareness on importance of a healthy diet, physical activity, especially among children and adolescents and healthy environments into urban planning. These concepts are not new, yet they are not been able to find space in our routines. But we agree that we lack population who are not systematically surveyed.
Recognizing that Diabetes is not only a public health crisis; it is a huge socio-economic burden too. Piramal Swasthya in collaboration with and funding from World Diabetes Federation, is running a second phase of Comprehensive Diabetes Management in Assam since 2016. The main objectives of this program are screening of the population, health education and awareness of beneficiaries and community resource personnel, referral and transport support of high-risk cases of diabetes, counselling and telemedicine services at the rural and hard to reach areas of Assam. There are 80 project vans running in the state and between August 2016 – 2018, approximately 30,000 cases are identified as confirmed diabetic.
So far, as of August 2018, a total of 118,259 awareness and screening camps have been conducted by reaching out to 899,920 people. The project has trained some 19,360 paramedics and 800 school teachers for IEC and counselling services.
To celebrate the success and spread of the programme in state, the organization is observing world diabetes day on November 14, 2018 and will conduct a Diabtiec walk with objective of spreading awareness and enagage coumminty and families.
Lets come togeter and walk THE WALK on WORLD DIABETES DAY.
[1] Estimates for type 1 diabetes in children and adolescents were largely based on incidence data from India and China
[2] Type 2 diabetes cases
Reference
- Federation ID. IDF DIABETES ATLAS Eighth edition 2017. 2017. 16-17 p.
- https://www.idf.org/our-network/regions-members/south-east-asia/members/94-india.html
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Prevalence+of+diabetes+and+prediabetes+in+15+states+of+India%3A+results+from+the+ICMR%E2%80%93INDIAB+population-based+cross-sectional+study
- https://www.telegraphindia.com/states/north-east/diabetes-on-rise-in-rural-assam/cid/1427870