8.4m diabetic in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is currently home to 8.4 million diabetics, half of who do not even know the status of their disease, said experts at a workshop yesterday.

Diabetes caused deaths of 4.9 million people in 2014 across the world, meaning the disease kills one person every seven seconds.

The workshop on diabetic retinopathy was organised jointly by Helen Keller International-Bangladesh and National Institute of Ophthalmology & Hospital (NIOH) in the capital's Krishibid Institute, said a press release.

Experts from home and abroad informed that at present, there are 387 million people (one in 12 people) living with diabetes across the world. This number is estimated to increase to 592 million by 2035. 

Diabetes is rapidly spreading in South Asia, and 77 percent of people with diabetes live in low and middle income countries, experts observed.  

If diabetes is poorly controlled, diabetic retinopathy, which leads to blindness, can occur. At present, 1.8 million people in Bangladesh have some form of diabetic retinopathy (27 percent prevalence among diabetics).   

The workshop also focused on the importance of diabetic retinopathy screening at the national and sub-national level and developing a strategy to fight it.

Prof PN Nagpal of India; Dr Mahi Muqit of Moorfields Eye Hospital in the UK; Dr Nicholas Kourgialis, vice president for Eye Health of Helen Keller International-USA; Dr Meredith Jackson-deGraffenried, country director of Helen Keller International-Bangladesh; and Prof Md Arif Miah,director of NIOH, spoke among others.

The event featured presentations from Helen Keller International, NIOH, Chittagong Eye Infirmary and Training Complex, Islamia Eye Hospital,  BIRDEM hospital, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University and Lions Eye Institute & Hospital.