Islamabad, November 18, 2021 (PPI-OT):Health experts have called for a national action plan to prevent and treat all non-communicable diseases including diabetes and said that Provincial governments and all other stakeholders need to be bound by the plan. The prices of diabetes medicines should be reduced by 25% and a free supply of these medicines should be ensured in all the district headquarters hospitals.
These views were expressed by the leading health experts including Dr. Khubaib Shahid central president PIMA, Prof. Hafiz Ijaz Ahmad (Lahore), Dr. Shabbir Ahmad, Dr. Iftikhar Burney (Islamabad), Prof. Abdullah Muttaqi (Karachi), Prof. Fasih Ahmad Hashmi (Hyderabad), Prof. Gulshan Hussain Farooqi (Swat), Prof. Muhammad Tayab (Peshawar), Dr. Sarwar Badini (Quetta), Dr. Abdul Rehman (Bhimber) and others while addressing awareness and screening programs across the country on world diabetes day on Sunday. These programs were arranged by Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (PIMA) for the general public at over 100 places. People from different walks of life participated in these programs in large numbers.
Experts urged the people to have effective control of diabetes through a balanced diet, regular exercise and medication. They added that diabetes is not only fatal in terms of consequences but also causes many other diseases like heart, kidney and eye diseases. They demanded from the government that children should be made aware of the importance of healthy living, healthy diet, dental hygiene and all kinds of dangers of smoking/drug use in the primary education curriculum so that our future generations could be prevented from these diseases and disabilities by getting information and education.
The government should increase the tax on artificial sweeteners and spend its revenue on increasing the treatment facilities for these diseases. Paramedical staff in Pakistan should be properly trained to bandage the wounds of diabetics so that thousands of people can be saved from disability as a result of the amputation of their feet. He further said that effective check and balance measures are required by the concerned institutions on the cost of Diabetes diagnosis tests and especially on their quality. They concluded that PIMA is striving for the education and prevention of the disease through their 20 free diabetes clinic in different cities and support all government efforts in this regard.
For more information, contact:
Media Coordinator,
Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (PIMA)
Central Secretariat, 12-Shalimar Centre, 2nd Floor,
F-8 Markaz, Islamabad, Pakistan
Tel: +92-51-2261943
Fax: +92-51-2857132
Cell: +92-332-5564935
Email: pima@dsl.net.pk, media.pima@gmail.com
Website: www.pima.org.pk