India has the highest number of people with diabetes in the World: Rebecca Reynolds

During  the MEDICON International 2016, an international conference on advanced clinical medicine in Kolkata, Rebecca Reynolds, Metabolic Medicine's professor of UK's University of Edinburgh, said, "Diabetes becomes a global problem, when the number of people with diabetes in the World is 415 million (Reported in 2015) and it could go up to 642 million by 2040."

"There are 78.3 million (reported in 2015) diabetic patients in South-East Asia and it's increasing very fast," Rebecca added.

The professor also said that diabetes, which is of two different types, could increase the risks of HIV-AIDS, Tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria.

"Though we found more diabetic patients in urban zones than rural areas, but poor diet due to poverty is a leading reason of Type 2 diabetes," the senior professor said.

Basing on an health report, Rebecca Reynolds said that 1/4th population of India was under poverty line, when 1/3rd babies were born in the country with very low weight.

Talking about its prevention, professor Rebecca said, "There are three types of diabetes prevention- primary, secondary and tertiary, which are exciting but a challenging job."

"The Indian government has overtaken several strategies to fight against it. Two pilot projects- NPDCS (National Programme for Prevention and Control of Diabetes, Cardiovascular and Diseases) and in 2008 and NCPDCS (National Programme for Prevention of Cancer and NCDs) in 2010- were conducted in 10 and 21states respectively," she said.

Rebecca said that there was also an expansion of programme with additional diabetes screening and treatment in 2013.

However, the UK-based professor said that the NCPDCS project did not achieve much in India to prevent diabetes.

"Due to the lack of diabetes specialists across the country and poor awareness about the disease among the people of rural areas, the project could not achieve a huge success," she added.

The third edition of Medicon International Conference, jointly hosted by Peerless Hospital, B. K. Roy Foundation and Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, was held on Dec 17 and 18 in Kolkata's Hyatt Regency hotel.