55% of 21,000 diabetics in Mumbai are women

Mumbai: Even as the BMC will attempt to detect more cases of hidden diabetes by randomly checking the blood sugar of more than two lakh Mumbaikars on Wednesday, existing statistics reveal a worrying trend. More women than men—55% of the 21,000 patients are women—seek free treatment at BMC's 55 diabetic clinics.      "We were surprised to find more women than men as patients," said additional municipal commissioner Manisha Mhaiskar on Tuesday. However, city's executive health officer Dr Arun Bamne said that the gender bias could be a reflection of the fact that women were free to attend the civic clinics that function during afternoons.      But the BMC's more-woman-patients theory ties in with a similar finding three years when Metropolis Laboratory found more woman patients among the two lakh people tested for the disease. "Diabetes usually doesn't discriminate on gender lines, but Indian women could be more prone because of their poor vitamin D levels," said endocrinologist Shashank Joshi from Lilavati Hospital.      The BMC's diabetes programme began with 21 special clinics offering free tests and medicines in 2011. It now covers 52 clinics. "We offer free medicines to 35,647 patients registered at our suburban hospitals. Another 34,782 are listed at our teaching hospitals and get free insulin too," said Mhaiskar. TNN