A full and healthy life is possible with diabetes

Bangladesh is likely to follow global gender patterns of diabetes - more women than men will live with diabetes. The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) predict that the number of women in the world with diabetes will double in less than 20 years. In Bangladesh, the number of women with diabetes will grow from the present 2.0 million to 4.0 million by 2025. During the same period, the number of men with diabetes will increase from 1.8 million to 3.4 million. Following the trends across the region, the urban population with diabetes in Bangladesh is expected to increase dramatically over the next 20 years.
People all over the world, especially in developing countries, have the impression that diabetes is a disease of the rich. That is NOT the case. The number of diabetes is rising faster in developing countries like Bangladesh. The key reason is that lifestyles are changing faster in developing countries. This change is related to urbanisation and globalisation.
The diabetes awareness programme makes people aware of Type 2 Diabetes and helps them realise that it is 65 per cent preventable. The programme also puts pressure on regulatory bodies to provide schools with sports programmes. Bangladesh is densely populated which makes it difficult to find space for exercise. However, creative solutions can be found. For example, four or five schools can share football grounds.
The Diabetic Association  of Bangladesh  underscored the need for a global commitment to create awareness for proper  medicare for control of diabetes and its prevention. A United Nations Resolution on diabetes declaring  November 14 as World Diabetes Day  could help change the mindset of the people. The UN Resolution, orchestrated by Bangladesh in 2006, has been a tremendous help in raising awareness about diabetes. We need to make sure people know that Type 2 is, to a large extent, preventable. The future need not be gloomy; a full and healthy life is possible with diabetes. That is a very important message for all affected by diabetes.  The developing countries typically focus on communicable diseases. Non-communicable diseases like diabetes have been neglected. More attention is required urgently before these countries are overwhelmed by a diabetes epidemic
Pathogenesis of diabetes has been understood experimentally since about 1900. Joseph Von Mering and Oskar Minkowski found in 1889 that dogs whose pancreas was removed developed all the signs and symptoms of diabetes and died shortly afterwards. In 1910, Sir Edward Albert Sharpey-Schafer suggested that people with diabetes were deficient in a single chemical that was normally produced by the pancreas-he proposed calling this substance insulin, from the Latin insula, meaning island, in reference to the insulin-producing islets of Langerhans in the pancreas. Sir  Frederic Grant Banting  and Charles Herbert Best repeated the work of Von Mering and Minkowski, and went further to demonstrate they could reverse induced diabetes in dogs by giving them an extract from the pancreatic islets of Langerhans of healthy dogs. Banting, Best, and colleagues (especially the chemist Collip) went on to purify the hormone insulin from bovine pancreases at the University of Toronto. This led to the availability of an effective treatment-insulin injections-and the first patient was treated in 1922. For this, Banting and laboratory director MacLeod received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1923. Banting and Best made the patent available without charge and did not attempt to control commercial production. Insulin production and therapy rapidly spread around the world, largely as a result of this decision. As a mark of honour to Banting, World Diabetes Day is observed on November 14, his birthday.
In 1980, U.S. biotech company Genentech developed human insulin. The insulin is isolated from genetically altered bacteria (the bacteria contain the human gene for synthesizing human insulin), which produce large quantities of insulin. The purified insulin is distributed to pharmacies for use by diabetes patients.
However, despite the availability of treatment, diabetes has remained a major cause of death.
Dr Muhammad Abdul Mazid, a retired Secretary and former Chairman NBR, is Chief Coordinator of the Diabetic Association of Bangladesh.
[email protected]