India is seeing an alarming rise in the number of diabetic patients as revealed by the Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology journal. It estimates that over 10 crore people are likely diabetic, over 11% of the Indian population. The journal has also identified 13 crore people to be pre-diabetic. With such an enormous number of diabetic and pre-diabetic patients, India has truly become the ‘diabetes capital of the world.’ It is quite strange that not very long ago, in between 1938 to 1959, in big cities of the country merely one per cent or less of the population were found to be diabetic. An alarming rise of the disease was first noticed in the eighties and by the end of the last century the number of affected people reached 12 per cent. Since then, the figure has been consistently on the rise. Unhealthy lifestyle, food habits and tension of modern day life are cited as the main reasons for such an alarming rise of the disease. What is more worrying is the fact that the disease is not sparing the younger population, who are considered the backbone of the country. If the majority of youth today become diabetic, it will have a severe effect on the economic growth of the country. According to experts, in such a situation the loss may amount to several crore as along with the urban population, rural population are also being affected by the disease.
[bsa_pro_ad_space id=1]In the medical fraternity, diabetes is considered a dangerous condition as it increases the chances of being affected by infections. This is exactly what happened during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many diabetic people lost their lives when infected by the Covid virus. The fatalities among diabetic persons were much higher than those who were not suffering from it. Diabetes often called the ‘silent killer’ may become life threatening if proper attention is not provided to prevent the disease from weakening various organs. So, the populace needs to develop healthy habits to keep the disease at bay. A regular regime of exercise, timely meals, proper balance of protein, vitamins, minerals and fibers, avoiding excessive drinking and leading a tension-free life is the key to combating the disease.
In this regard, the role of both the central and state governments are important. The authorities should organise camps and programmes to increase awareness among the people of the dangers of the disease. The number of such activities has decreased considerably during the last couple of years in the wake of the pandemic. These days more funds are allocated to create awareness about infectious disease. But non-infectious diseases like Cancer, Diabetes, Stroke, and Heart Attacks are equally if not more dangerous and life threatening. The total amount allocated for combating these diseases have come down from INR 500 crore in 2022-23 to INR 289 crore in 2023-24. The allocation needs to be increased as it is not nearly sufficient to tackle the fatal diseases. A proactive approach to building a healthy nation is the need of the hour.