Meanwhile, health experts on December 15 said an estimated 26,000 children and teenagers developed Type 1 diabetes in Pakistan every year but 13,000 or nearly half of them did not survive due to delayed diagnosis and the unavailability of life saving insulin.
This information as shared at an awareness ceremony on Type 1 diabetes where an agreement was signed between Meethi Zindagi, a non-profit working with insulin dependent patients, and the Discovering Diabetes Project run by Pharm Evo to improve early detection, data collection and access to treatment for children with the disease.
Dr Sana Ajmal, founder and chief executive of Meethi Zindagi, said Type 1 diabetes was widely misunderstood in Pakistan and was often confused with Type 2 diabetes, which typically affects adults.
“Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which the body’s own defence system destroys insulin producing cells in the pancreas,” she explained. “Once this happens, a child or teenager becomes dependent on insulin for the rest of their life. Without insulin, they simply cannot survive.”
Dr Ajmal, who herself lives with Type 1 diabetes, said lack of awareness was the biggest killer. “Most children with Type 1 diabetes are not diagnosed until they collapse. Parents do not recognise the warning signs and many doctors also fail to suspect it early,” she said while addressing the event.
She identified extreme tiredness, rapid weight loss, excessive thirst and frequent urination as the four key symptoms that should immediately raise alarm.
Mohsin Shiraz, project manager of the Discovering Diabetes initiative at Pharm Evo, said the company had been running a digital diabetes awareness chatbot, Diabot, for the past five years which had helped hundreds of thousands of people with Type 2 diabetes understand their condition and seek treatment. “Recently, we started receiving queries from undiagnosed Type 1 diabetes patients and parents looking for urgent guidance,” he said.
Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2025.
