KARACHI: Local and foreign health experts on Sunday voice concern over alarming rise in diabetes and excessive use of tobacco in the country that not only killed around 566,000 people annually but also emerged as the leading risk factor for Diabetic Foot Ulcers (DFUs).

“Smoking causes dozens of diseases including peripheral arterial disease, which is known to be a risk factor affecting the amputation of diabetic foot,” said Shahzad Alam, an official of the World Health Organization (WHO).

He was speaking at the National Association of Diabetes Educators of Pakistan (NADEP) Diabetes Footcon, which concluded here on Sunday.

The president of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), Prof Andrew Boulton as well as experts from European, Middle Eastern and African countries and many leading health facilities and research centres from Pakistan gave presentations at the three-day event on the issue of diabetic foot ulcers and called for a national programme for the prevention of diabetes and treatment of diabetic foot ulcers among people with diabetes.

Three-day Diabetes Footcon concludes

Mr Alam said those living with diabetes should quit smoking and other forms of tobacco as early as possible to prevent themselves from the complications of the disease, which include heart attacks, stroke, loss of lower limbs among many others.

NADEP president Dr Saif ul Haq said people with diabetes needed education and awareness to prevent themselves from the complications of the disease.

“We also need specialised clinics to deal with the issue of diabetic foot ulcers. NADEP is going to establish 300 such clinics in the country in coming years but we need 3,000 such clinics and centres for prevention of amputations,” he said.

Prof Boulton spoke about modern approaches for prevention of diabetic foot ulcers and informed the audience that its prevalence was around two per cent in the Europe, whereas it was very high among people living with diabetes in the developing world due to lack of awareness and access to diabetes care.

He maintained that authorities and healthcare providers should launch programmes to educate masses regarding prevention of diabetes including adoption of healthy lifestyle and eating balanced diet and called for using technology including telemedicine to approach millions of diabetics for their education and treatment of ulcers that are leading to amputation.

Another expert, Prof Zahid Miyan deplored that millions of diabetics in Pakistan were not aware that a little carelessness by them could deprive them of their lower limbs and advised people living with diabetes to daily check their feet, never walk barefoot, don’t wash their feet with warm water and learn to trim their nails as this can often lead to foot ulcers, which can lead to amputation if not treated.

“Like Europe, we can bring our diabetic foot ulcer rate down from 10pc to 2pc and save thousands of limbs from amputation but in order to that, we need to educate our people and train our physicians and surgeons. Media can play an important role in saving lives of people as well as preventing them from becoming permanently disabled,” he added.

Published in Dawn, November 8th, 2021