Experts Stress Need for Updated Diabetes Data and Stronger Healthcare in Pakistan

Pakistan is facing a growing health crisis as experts call for a new nationwide diabetes survey to determine the true scale of type 2 diabetes. The last survey was conducted in 2016–17, and specialists warn that relying on decade-old data is no longer viable in a country where lifestyles and risk factors have changed dramatically.

Prof Dr Abdul Basit, president of the Diabetes Asia Study Group and chairman of the Health Research Advisory Board, emphasized that while a fresh survey is “immensely important,” it must go hand in hand with system-wide improvements in diabetes care. He stressed the need for affordable medicines, stronger primary care infrastructure, trained physicians, and reliable patient registries.

The World Health Organization estimates that around 34.5 million people in Pakistan are currently living with diabetes. However, experts believe the real figure may be much higher due to rising obesity, declining physical activity, and worsening dietary habits. Alarmingly, more patients are being diagnosed at younger ages and with more complications.

The last national survey was one of Pakistan’s most comprehensive public health studies, involving blood sugar testing of over 10,000 adults across all provinces. Its findings revealed high rates of type 2 diabetes and prediabetes, placing Pakistan among the countries with the fastest-growing diabetes burden.

Since then, urbanization has accelerated, consumption of ultra-processed foods has increased, and preventive care has failed to keep pace. Experts argue that without updated, population-based data, policymakers are “planning in the dark.”

Private initiatives such as Discovering Diabetes, which has compiled data on around one million patients, demonstrate the feasibility of large-scale data collection. Yet, specialists insist that fragmented datasets cannot replace a nationally coordinated survey or a unified registry linked to public health planning.

They also highlight the role of Pakistan’s pharmaceutical sector and regulators, pointing to the Central Research Fund of the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan. Despite being worth billions of rupees, this fund has not been meaningfully utilized for large-scale health research.

Experts conclude that Pakistan has the technical expertise to conduct a new survey to international standards. What is needed now is committed funding and political will to ensure that updated data and stronger healthcare systems work together to combat the country’s escalating diabetes crisis.