New Delhi [India], November 15 (ANI): With an estimated 254 million adults living with diabetes in the South-East Asia Region and millions more remaining undiagnosed, early detection, affordable treatment and stronger primary healthcare systems are critical to tackling the growing public health challenge, Dr Nilesh Buddha, Officer-in-Charge, WHO South-East Asia, has said.In his message marking World Diabetes Day on Saturday, November 14, Dr Buddha highlighted the need for early diagnosis, access to comprehensive care and efforts to eliminate stigma surrounding the disease, stressing that timely intervention can help prevent life-threatening complications affecting the heart, kidneys, nerves and eyes.”Early action starts in communities where healthy choices are within reach and symptoms are recognised early,” Dr Buddha said, underlining the importance of primary healthcare in identifying people at risk and ensuring prompt diagnosis.He stressed that diagnosis must be followed by affordable and uninterrupted treatment, supported by societies that encourage and support people living with diabetes rather than stigmatise them.Highlighting the scale of the challenge, Dr Buddha noted that nearly two-thirds of people with diabetes in the Region are not receiving glucose-lowering treatment, pointing to significant gaps in diagnosis and access to essential healthcare services.The World Diabetes Day theme, “Early action on diabetes”, calls for a stronger focus on identifying the disease at an early stage, ensuring comprehensive care and addressing social barriers that affect people living with the condition.Highlighting regional efforts to strengthen diabetes management, Dr Buddha said the South-East Asia region was advancing the agenda through SEAHEARTS, a regional initiative aimed at accelerating cardiovascular disease prevention and control.Under the initiative, Member States have committed to placing 70 million people with diabetes on protocol-based management by 2030, with the goal of achieving good glycaemic control in 50 per cent of them.According to Dr Buddha, nine countries had, as of June 2026, scaled up protocol-based diabetes management, reaching more than 43.5 million people through over 180,000 healthcare facilities.He also pointed to the WHO Global Diabetes Compact, launched in 2021, which seeks to reduce the risk of diabetes and ensure equitable access to comprehensive, affordable and quality treatment and care for everyone diagnosed with the disease.The regional Implementation Roadmap for Accelerating the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases in Southeast Asia 2022–2030 and the 2024 Colombo Call to Action on strengthening diabetes prevention and control provide further strategic direction and practical measures to translate these commitments into action.Dr Buddha noted that countries across the Region had adopted several innovative approaches to improve diabetes services, including involving religious leaders in awareness campaigns, promoting diabetes remission through lifestyle interventions and simplifying treatment protocols at the primary healthcare level.Experiences from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor-Leste, documented in the publication Prevention and Control of Diabetes Mellitus: Lessons for Service Delivery from Countries in the South-East Asia region, offer practical insights into strengthening and expanding diabetes care, he said.However, he cautioned that innovation alone would not be enough to address persistent gaps in service delivery.Frequent stock-outs of essential medicines, including insulin, limited access to point-of-care diagnostics and inadequate patient follow-up systems continue to disrupt continuity of care and undermine long-term diabetes management, according to Dr Buddha.Calling for sustained government action, he emphasised the need for greater investment in primary healthcare, essential medicines, diagnostics, trained health workers and systems that ensure uninterrupted treatment.He further stressed that affordable insulin and essential medicines must be treated as a core component of universal health coverage, supported by reliable supply chains capable of reaching those most in need.Efforts, he said, must particularly focus on people facing financial, geographical and social barriers to healthcare, ensuring that access to quality diabetes services is not determined by health literacy, age, gender, place of residence or ability to pay.Concluding his World Diabetes Day message, Dr Buddha called for a collective commitment to early intervention and lifelong support for people living with the disease.”This World Diabetes Day, let us commit to acting early, to ensure that every person living with diabetes is diagnosed in time, treated promptly, and supported for life,” he said. (ANI)(This content is sourced from a syndicated feed and is published as received. The Tribune assumes no responsibility or liability for its accuracy, completeness, or content.)