Financial strain, double jobs and unhealthy diets are pushing people as young as 20 to 30 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 news briefing, held during the annual conference of the Pakistan Endocrine Society, senior diabetologists and internal medicine specialists said emergency wards are regularly receiving young patients in their late twenties and early thirties with multiple blocked coronary arteries, and it is only after angiography and laboratory testing that they are informed they have long-standing type 2 diabetes and hypertension.
In most cases, they added, the disease has progressed 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 launched its 2024-25 impact report, revealing that the programme has so far reached over 8.5 million people, tracked around 966,000 individuals for diabetes risk and connected 463,000 suspected patients to medical advice.
Free testing and consultation were provided to more than 348,000 people through screening camps, digital platforms and doctor linkages across Pakistan. Experts said these numbers show both the scale of the outreach and the alarming rise of undiagnosed diabetes in the population.
Former Pakistan Endocrine Society president Dr Abrar Ahmed said diabetes has silently become one of Pakistan’s top health threats and is climbing fast. “Every fourth Pakistani is diabetic. It is a painful picture, but gatherings like this give hope. If we want to move forward, lifestyle change has to begin now. The moment lifestyle starts improving, diabetes begins to come under control,” he said, adding that public fascination with weight loss injections has diverted focus from basic diabetes management and routine blood sugar monitoring.
Discovering Diabetes Project Director Syed Jamshed Ahmed said more than 3.3 crore people in Pakistan are confirmed diabetics, and an almost equal number are believed to be living with the disease without knowing it.
“We screened hundreds of thousands of citizens, and many only discovered diabetes after we linked them with a physician. People proudly say they can eat a kilo of gulab jamun without worry. That mindset is driving a generation towards disability,” he said, urging the government to introduce short diabetes warning messages through mobile caller tunes and broadcast alerts.
Consultant physician and PSIM representative Dr Soumya Iqtidar said the medical community remains in a constant “firefighting mode”. “Pakistan is now among the highest in adult diabetes and close to topping global obesity charts. Diabetes does not come alone. It brings hypertension, kidney strain, heart failure and mobility issues. PSIM has started A to Z diabetes training for general practitioners, and a course with IDF is being finalised to equip primary care doctors,” she said.
Former PES president Dr Khurshid A. Khan said type 2 diabetes is now spreading at a speed never seen before in Pakistan due to inactivity, stress and high-calorie diets.
“Earlier patients walked into clinics. Now many arrive in wheelchairs. People are doing 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 in lifestyle diseases,” he said, adding that television channels dedicate long hours to politics but rarely touch Pakistan’s biggest health emergency.
PharmEvo Managing Director Haroon Qasim said diabetes is a silent killer and warned that Pakistan is heading towards the highest diabetes burden globally. He said an estimated 230,000 deaths occur annually in Pakistan due to diabetes and its complications.
“IDF has recognised Discovering Diabetes as a model of diabetes awareness and selected PharmEvo for this mission after reviewing our four-year performance,” he said, calling for a policy shift on sugary drinks. “In Arab countries, taxes on sugary beverages are very high to discourage consumption. Pakistan should do the same. Diabetes and hypertension go hand in hand, so policy must target both through price controls on harmful products and incentives for healthy diets”.
Trifit CEO Ahmer Azam said that Pakistan has become a “nation of exceptions, not systems”. “We assume a few lucky people stay healthy without effort. That attitude makes us irresponsible. No country consumes more bakery items than Pakistan. Exercise is mandatory. WHO recommends 150 minutes a week. If someone cannot spare two and a half hours weekly for their own health, expecting to live a healthy life is unrealistic,” he said.
He urged doctors to prescribe exercise in writing, as is done in many countries, and announced that all Trifit marketing screens nationwide will display diabetes awareness messages for a week.
