From baggy trousers to a love of biryani: why diabetes is a growing problem in Pakistan
The South Asian country has one of the highest rates of the disease in the world - and it s affecting younger and slimmer people
9 April 2021 • 7:00am
Increased consumption of sugary drinks is fuelling the rise in diabetes, say doctors
Credit: Hoang Dinh Nam/AFP
When Dr Basit Shoukat began treating people for diabetes in the Pakistani port of Karachi 15 years ago, he reckons around one in 10 people had the condition.
In the intervening years, that figure has not only jumped as high as one in four, but it is climbing sharply, and he is worried.