57pc people living with diabetes undiagnosed

The World Diabetes Day was observed across the country on Thursday to raise awareness about diabetes and promote healthy lifestyle among mass people.

To mark the day, Novo Nordisk in partnership with Diabetic Association of Bangladesh (BADAS) launched countrywide massive awareness campaigns in line with this year’s theme—'Diabetes: Protect Your Family’.

“Diabetes is increasing at an alarming rate and we need to work together to address this challenge,” said Professor AK Azad Khan, President of BADAS, also an Independence Award winner.

Around 57 per cent people living with diabetes in Bangladesh don’t know they have diabetes out of 69 lakh and it will hit 1.37 crore by 2045, according to International Diabetes Federation (IDF).  

As part of the campaign, the partners organised 150 rallies across the country. One of the rallies was organised in front of the National Museum in the capital.  

It was participated by country’s top healthcare professionals, adults and kids living with diabetes.

The IDF estimated that 17,057 children and adolescents (age < 20 years) have type 1 diabetes in Bangladesh.

BADAS has very sustainable relationship with Novo Nordisk when it comes diabetes awareness and education, Khan said.

“As an outcome of the partnership, we have launched ‘Diabetes Journey’ app based on ‘Diabetes Care BADAS Guideline 2019’ on Tuesday,” he said.     

Awareness and education are the key catalyst to prevent diabetes as more than 50 per cent diabetes is preventable, he added.  

Diabetes is more dangerous than most people think as every eight seconds someone dies from diabetes, said Anand Shetty, Managing Director of Novo Nordisk.  

“It’s time to act and we must communicate about the severity and urgency of diabetes,” said Shetty.   

More than 100 medical education programmes will be organised to share knowledge on diabetes management among around 3000 doctors.   

Source: Press Release

 

Dhaka/Mukul