Financial strain, double jobs and unhealthy diets are pushing people in their 20s and 30s into undiagnosed diabetes, and many only discover their condition when they land in hospitals with severely blocked heart vessels and uncontrolled blood pressure. The News reported on Sunday.
Speaking at the briefing, which was held during the annual conference of the Endocrine Society of Pakistan, senior diabetologists and internal medicine specialists said that emergency wards regularly see young patients in their late twenties and early thirties with multiple blocked coronary arteries and are only told after angiography and laboratory tests that they have long-term diabetes and type 2 hypertension.
In most cases, they added, the disease progresses silently for years without symptoms, and by the time it is detected, damage to blood vessels, kidneys and other organs has already begun.
At the briefing, the Discovering Diabetes team presented its 2024-25 impact report, revealing that the program has so far reached more than 8.5 million people, monitored around 966,000 people for diabetes risk and linked 463,000 suspected patients with medical advice.
Free tests and counseling were provided to more than 348,000 people through screening camps, digital platforms and doctor connections across Pakistan. Experts said these numbers show both the scale of the approach and the alarming increase in undiagnosed diabetes in the population.
Former president of the Endocrine Society of Pakistan, Dr Abrar Ahmed, said diabetes has quietly become one of Pakistan’s leading health threats and is growing rapidly. “One in four Pakistanis is diabetic. It’s a distressing picture, but such gatherings give hope. If we want to move forward, lifestyle change must start now. Once lifestyles start improving, diabetes starts to come under control,” he said, adding that the public’s fascination with weight-loss injections has diverted the focus from its basic management. diabetes and routine blood sugar monitoring.
Discovering Diabetes program director Syed Jamshed Ahmed said more than 3.3 crore people in Pakistan are confirmed diabetics and almost an equal number are believed to be living with the disease without knowing it.
“We screened hundreds of thousands of citizens and many discovered diabetes only after we connected them with a doctor. People proudly say they can eat a kilo of gulab jamun without worry. This mindset is leading a generation towards disability,” he said, urging the government to soon introduce diabetes warning messages through mobile ringtones and broadcast alerts.
Consultant physician and PSIM spokesperson Dr Soumya Iqtidar said the medical community remains in a constant “firefighting mode”. “Pakistan is now among the highest in adult diabetes and near the top of the global obesity charts. Diabetes does not come alone. It brings hypertension, kidney strain, heart failure and mobility problems. PSIM has started A to Z training for general practitioners and a course with the IDF is being completed to equip primary care doctors,” he said.
Former PES President Dr Khurshid A. Khan said type 2 diabetes is now spreading at an unprecedented rate in Pakistan due to inactivity, stress and a high-calorie diet.
“Patients used to go to clinics. Now many arrive in wheelchairs. People are working double shifts to survive, parks are disappearing, healthy food is expensive while junk food is cheap. Our economic collapse is directly linked to the rise of lifestyle diseases,” he said, adding that TV channels spend hours on politics but rarely touch on the Pakistan’s biggest health emergencies.
PharmEvo CEO Haroon Qasim said diabetes is a silent killer and warned that Pakistan is heading towards the highest diabetes burden in the world. He said that an estimated 230,000 deaths occur annually in Pakistan due to diabetes and its complications.
“IDF recognized Discovering Diabetes as a diabetes awareness model and selected PharmEvo for this mission after reviewing our four-year performance,” he said, calling for a policy change on sugary drinks. “In Arab countries, taxes on sugary drinks are too high to discourage consumption. Pakistan needs to do the same. Diabetes and hypertension go hand in hand, so policy needs to be targeted both through price controls on harmful products and incentives for healthy eating.”
Trifit CEO Ahmer Azam said Pakistan has become a “nation of exceptions, not systems”. “We assume that a lucky few stay healthy without effort. This attitude makes us irresponsible. No country consumes more baked goods than Pakistan. Exercise is mandatory. The WHO recommends 150 minutes a week. If one cannot devote two and a half hours a week to one’s own health, it is unrealistic to expect one to live a healthy life,” he said.
He urged doctors to prescribe exercise in writing, as is done in many countries, and announced that all Trifit marketing screens nationwide would display diabetes awareness messages for a week.
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