In a bid to increase awareness among people and to sensitise them about diabetes, Project Uday organised ‘Walk for Diabetes’ on the Beach Road here on Thursday morning on the occasion of World Diabetes Day.
Vice-Chancellor of Andhra University G.S.N. Raju, who flagged off the walk, urged the participants to spread awareness among people about diabetes, its prevention, and control.
Site Coordinator of Project Uday and consultant interventional cardiologist of Queens NRI Hospital Bhaskara Rao said more than half of the deaths in India were due to non-communicable diseases and diabetes was an important disease among them. “At present, 61 million Indians have diabetes and the figure would go up to 101 million by 2030 if care is not taken,” he said.
The campaign against diabetes is supported by the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), Population Services International (PSI), Project Hope (PH), and Eli Lilly under the Global Lilly NCD Partnership.
Programme Coordinator of Uday PHFI Nikhil S.V.; manager (programmes) of PSI G.K.V. Ravi Chandra, and Ciju of PH explained the goals and objectives of Project Uday.
GVMC Chief Medical Officer M.S. Raju, RMO of KGH K.S.L.G. Sastry, NSS Coordinator of Andhra University N.A.D. Paul, and a senior professor of AU Ranga Rao spoke.
Building of Manipal Hospital was lit up with blue lights, blue being the colour that indicates diabetes, to spread awareness. Diabetes was preventable with a healthy lifestyle and if it was controlled at an early stage, complications associated with it could be reduced greatly, a physician of the hospital K. Anitha said. The campaign was meant to develop an attitude of preventive care, said unit head Sukesh Reddy.
Screening package
The hospital would provide a special screening package till December 15 and launched a mobile app ‘walk-o-meter’, which helps an individual maintain the right weight and keep blood glucose under check.
The 198 Battalion of CRPF and CRPF Wives’ Welfare Association organised an awareness programme for families and troopers of the battalion deployed in the Visakha Agency area. A physician of Seven Hills Sridhar Srinivas spoke. Commandant of the battalion Nisheet Kumar and his wife Babita Singh inaugurated the programme. Second-in-command Khalid Khan and Deputy Commandant P. Kishore spoke.
