DIABETESINDIA originally named as The Indian Task Force on Diabetes Care In India was initially formed by a group of around 400 practising diabetologists and has now opened its doors to other medical specialists, family physicians, people with diabetes and all others interested in the cause of diabetes. Today we are proud to say that we have a membership of many thousands and this is increasing at a rapid pace.

Diabetes, with its attendant acute and long term complications, and the myriad of disorders associated with it, is a major health hazard. In keeping with the scenario of most developing countries, India has long passed the stage of a diabetes epidemic. To put it simply, it has crossed the dividing line in which it is a problem associated with individuals, no matter how large this number may be, and is now a very large public health problem, growing astronomically year after year.

The 1997 WHO report has shown that there is a marked increase in the number of people affected with diabetes and this trend is scheduled to grow in geometric proportions in the next couple of decades.

DIABETESINDIA recently carried out a first of its kind nationwide survey of the prevalence of diabetes and our published data shows that India has already exceeded the WHO projections.

We now have the dubious distinction of being home to the largest number of people with diabetes for any one country.

The picture was made even more grim by the fact that many of our people with diabetes are still undiagnosed. Almost two out of three people in urban areas and three out of four in rural regions have diabetes but do not know it!

Whilst the high rates of prevalence of complications is disturbing, the picture is rendered all the more gloomy with reports that many patients already show the presence of these complications at the time of diagnosis. The results of another study carried out by DIABETESINDIA seem to bear this out.

There is no denying that diabetes and its attendant complications is a major problem in India.

More than a matter of individual health and well being, the epidemic calls for an effort in which attention must be paid not only to treating a patient with diabetes. It involves a collective response which includes the setting up of a complete infrastructure which involves attention to prevention as well as making diabetes care "Available, Accessible and Affordable" to all persons with diabetes.

Diabetes care should be "available", not only in terms of equipment, but, more importantly in terms of expertise. It should be "accessible" to the people without their having to travel long distances to avail of it. Importantly, such services must take into consideration the economic realities and be "affordable".

This concept of diabetes care which is "available, accessible and affordable" to our people with diabetes is central to the aims and objectives of DIABETESINDIA.

DiabetesIndia is very happy that many of its activities and initiatives, whether they be in the areas of education, research, clinical, community based projects have been widely appreciated. These include, amongst others, free insulin supplies for the economically deprived, prevention initiatives especially amongst schoolchildren, medical education for Family Practitioners, Physicians, Postgraduate and undergraduate students, in the form of specially focused lectures, Journals and Newsletters, and we reach around 50,000 doctors on a regular basis. We have published books on the Management of Diabetes and also books in ten Indian languages for patient education, which are now in their third print run. DiabetesIndia currently is carrying out seven nationwide multicentric studies dealing with aspects of the Metabolic Syndrome. Prevention and Optimal management are our two main priority areas. Our website www.diabetesindia.com is a forum for education and interaction and is now ranked in the first 100 by Google from 27.7 million websites when one searches with the word Diabetes, and gets around 300,000 hits per month.

All our activities have the basic focus on trying to improve and better the lives of our people with diabetes.

We invite all of you who are not yet members of DIABETESINDIA to join us in this quest.

Remember, together we can make a difference!

S.M.Sadikot
President, DIABETESINDIA
50, Manoel Gonsalves Rd.,
Bandra (W),
Mumbai 400 050,
India
Cell: 91-22-9820045859
Email: smsadikot@vsnl.com  smsadikot@gmail.com