Pakistan Endocrine Society (PES) announced on Saturday that diabetes screening, diagnosis, and management facilities are being built at the tehsil level in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) for the timely identification of the lifestyle disease, as fresh cases of diabetes have reached up to 16 percent in the young population of the province.
Dr. Ibrar Ahmed, President of the Pakistan Endocrine Society, informed the news reporters that, in KP, where 25 percent of the adults are already diabetic, the new onset of the disease in the younger population has reached 16 percent.Â
He continued by saying that PES, which has hundreds of skilled medical professionals as members across the nation, serves as the umbrella organization for doctors in Pakistan who treat diabetic patients. The organization intends to combat the Type 2 diabetes that has plagued the nation.
He explained that the society has started a pilot project in the Mardan district in partnership with local pharmaceutical firms for the screening, diagnosis, and treatment of diabetes to prevent new cases and treat old ones. The pilot program is a part of the REACH project, which will be replicated in other districts of KP and Balochistan if proven successful in Mardan.
These REACH centers are being established in accordance with a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with the KP government, and the local pharmaceutical company, Pharmevo, has offered financial assistance for these centers.
As per the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), approximately 33 million people in Pakistan have diabetes, and millions of people are prediabetics, which means they will develop the disease in the coming years.Â
