Srinagar, Nov 17: Out of ten diabetic patients in Valley, nine are ignorant about this disease, they are suffering from, said the experts revealed on Tuesday.
 “The awareness of diabetes is very low in Valley and out of 3032 subjects (patients) among young adults aged between 20-40 years, only eight knew that they are suffering from diabetes while 3024 diabetics were unaware,” the Director SK Institute of Medical Sciences, Soura Dr Abdul Hamid Zargar said while addressing a programme “Diabetes Education and Prevention” organised by the Institute in connection with the “World Diabetes Day.”
 He said, “Over all incidences of diabetes in young between the age group of 20-40 years are 2.5 per cent and alarmingly 25 percent of these adults have abnormal blood glucose level.”
 Speaking on the occasion Additional Professor, Department of Endocrinology, Dr Shariq Rashid Masoodi said the idea behind organizing the programme was to involve more people for awareness campaign. He said diabetes had non-specific symptoms and people should come forward for check up as the disease was on surge due to lack of awareness.
 The Dean SKIMS and Chairperson of the organizing committee, Dr Imtiyaz Ali said diabetes could not be cured, but its effects could me minimized, provided people were aware about the disease. “Government needs to implement effective policies to prevent the people from the risk of diabetes,” he said, adding that diabetes being a non-communicable disease had turned into an epidemic.
 He said every 10 seconds one person dies of diabetes and two new persons develop the disease in the world, adding Kashmiri people should show some sort of sensitivity for their health and cooperate with the medical fraternity to curb this epidemic.
 The programme was followed by prize distribution, in which a 10-year-old diabetic patient Aamir was awarded the courageous person for fighting against the disease.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 IST