World facing pandemic of obesity along with COVID-19: experts

In addition to the COVID-19 pandemic, world is also facing the pandemic of obesity which is taking more lives for last few years as compared to coronavirus infection, as according to World Health Organization (WHO), over four million people are dying annually as result of being overweight or obese, expert gastroenterologists said on Monday.

“COVID-19 and obesity are the two pandemics being faced by the world simultaneously and unfortunately, obesity is killing more people in the world as compared to the viral infectious disease," said Prof. Wasim Jafri in his state-of-the-art lecture on “COVID-19 GI and Liver Manifestation” at the 3rd Annual Virtual Conference of Pak GI and Liver Disease Society (PGLDS).

Top gastroenterologists from various medical varsities and health facilities in Pakistan as well as India, Azerbaijan and other countries of the world made their presentations on various aspects of gastrointestinal (GI) diseases, their management, prevention and treatment, and called for enhancing the awareness among masses to focus on preventive measures.

During the conference, new office-bearers of the GI society were also announced and according to the PGLDS, Prof. Dr. Lubna Kamani, associated with Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) and Liaquat National Hospital (LNH) became the first woman president of the GI society while Dr. Nazish Butt from the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC) was elected as the Vice President of the society.

Prof. Dr. Amanullah Abbssi was elected as the General Secretary of the PGLDS, Dr. Hafeezullah Shaikh as the publication secretary while three chapters including the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Punjab chapters were also included in the GI and liver disease society.

Renowned gastroenterologist Prof. Wasim Jaffri said obesity was alarmingly on the rise in the world and now it is the second pandemic that has gripped the world along with COVID-19 and added that liver failure cases were globally on the rise due to the pandemic of obesity.

He spoke on the different aspects of COVID-19, especially its effects on liver and told that acute liver injury has been seen at least 9 percent of the patients hospitalized with severe infection of the Coronavirus and added that those fortunately survives, also faces significant damage to their livers.

Calling for vaccination as top priority, he disclosed the Hepatitis B vaccine was introduced in 1969 but despite its availability for last several decades, the viral disease is still posing a serious health challenge in the world and called for promoting awareness and importance of COVID-19 vaccination to curb the contain the pandemic as early as possible.

President of the PGLDS Dr. Lubna Kamani thanked the members of the PGLDS for electing her the first female president of the GI society in Pakistan and vowed that under her leadership and guidance as well as support from other members, the society would train new gastroenterologists and provide better treatment opportunities to the people of Pakistan in their respective cities and towns.

Hoping that COVID-19 vaccine would soon be available for every citizen in Pakistan very soon and would make the 2021 a lot better year as compared to the previous year, she spoke on “Hepatitis C treatment in special population” and hoped that this disease would be eliminated by 2030 with concerted efforts and enthusiasm by the gastroenterologists.

Patron of the PGLDS Prof. Dr. Shahid Ahmed thanked that the speakers from various countries of the world for taking out time and making their presentations while outgoing PGLDS President Dr. Sajjad Jamil, newly elected VP Dr. Nazish Butt, Dr. Amanullah Abbassi, Dr. Muhammad Kamran, Dr. Hasnain Ali Shah, Dr. Jibran Umer from KP, Dr. Daud Gilzai from Balochistan, Dr. Nasir Luck, Dr. Amna Subhan, Dr. Nauman Zakir, and others also spoke.

Two leading Indian doctors including Dr. Ajay Kumar Duseja and Dr. Anil Arora also addressed the conference while Dr. Gulnara from Azerbaijan, Dr. Nadeem Tehami from UK and Dr. Sharmila from Malaysia also spoke.