By Joseph Varghese
Staff Reporter
About 20 to 25% of patients going to private clinics and hospitals in Qatar seek treatment for diabetes or diabetes-related diseases, according to physicians working in the private sector.
Two doctors who spoke to Gulf Times on the sidelines of the Arab Diabetes Medical Congress yesterday said there was a high level of ignorance about the disease among most sections of society.
Dr Jegan Chacko, a leading general practitioner, said that he sees daily about 20 patients suffering from diabetes or related illnesses.
“Most of the patients come with complaints of numbness in several parts of the body or pain in the joints. Many of them have blood sugar levels ranging from 500 to 600. This is very common especially among lower class workers staying alone.”
“One main problem is the lack of awareness about the disease among these people. Most of them do not know about the serious problems diabetes can cause. They come to know of the real problems only at the last stage, which makes the treatment very complicated.”
Dr Chacko said many of these patients suffered from neurological and nephrological diseases. “Most of these cases arise out of lifestyle-related problems. They are not aware of the negative impacts of their food habits as they have not got adequate awareness of the disease.”
Dr Deepak Chandramohan, another general practitioner, said many patients were averse to taking long-term medication.
“There are two concerns among the people about diabetes. Many are not happy about the fact that they have to continue with the medication for such a long time. They also feel that these medicines have side effects.”
“Diet and lifestyle modifications are very important in controlling diabetes. There are several cases where we have been successful in getting a pre-diabetic patient back to normal condition. While sedentary lifestyle is one major problem with office workers, careless eating habits and wrong food choices are a major problem among the working class,” added Dr Chandramohan.
He called for spreading “awareness about the disease and its deadly nature”.
“We have started a diabetes clinic in our facility. It is open every Wednesday,” he said.
Ninety deaths among Indians in Qatar this year
Ninety Indians have died in Qatar so far this year, the Indian embassy said yesterday in a statement issued after the monthly Open House. There are around 631,000 Indian expatriates in Qatar.
Eighteen Indians died this month (until April 23). There were 279 deaths in 2014 and 241 in 2013.
The Open House is held to address urgent consular and labour issues of Indian nationals in the country.
Ambassador Sanjiv Arora, deputy chief of mission R K Singh and other officials met the complainants and discussed their problems. The Open House was also attended by Baby Kurien, vice president of the Indian Community Benevolent Forum (ICBF).
The total number of Indian nationals in the Central Prison and the Deportation Centre currently is 92 and 142, respectively. An embassy team visited them last week.
The Labour and Community Welfare Section of the embassy has received a total of 1,319 complaints so far this year. The embassy had received 3,943 complaints in 2014 and 3,558 in 2013.
The embassy issued 19 emergency certificates in April, on the basis of requests from the Qatari authorities, for the inmates in the Deportation Centre. The embassy also issued five air tickets to community members in distress to enable them to return to India in April.
The ICBF is organising the next free medical camp for low-paid workers of all nationalities at the premises of KIMS Qatar Medical Centre, Wakrah, from 7am to 1.30pm on May 8. The medical camp is being organised in collaboration with Indian Doctors Club (Indian Medical Association) and KIMS Qatar Medical Centre.
Dr Deepak Chandramohan, Dr Jegan Chacko
