Diabetes -- Common Illness Causing Deaths To M'sians

KUCHING, Nov 7 (Bernama) -- Diabetes, the fourth killer ailment in developed countries, has now become a common illness that causes deaths to Malaysians.
State Health Director Dr Yao Sik King said many Malaysians, who led a sedentary lifestyle and did not exercise, were not aware they have diabetes.
According to the 1996 National Health and Morbidity Survey, about 8.3 per cent of the adult Malaysians or approximately 800,000 people, aged above 30, suffer from the killer disease, he said.
"In Sarawak, based on the eight per cent estimate, between 180,000 and 190,000 of its 2.3 million population are diabetics," he told a media conference to mark World Diabetes Day 2005.
Kuching will host this year's World Diabetes Day, observed every year on Nov 14. Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud will launch the national-level event themed "Diabetes and Foot Care."
Dr Yao said it was hard to get the actual number of diabetics as it was not a notifiable disease to the Health Department.
It was also not compulsory for diabetics, clinics and healthcare providers to register the sufferers with the authorities, he said.
Dr Yao said currently 194 million people in the world suffer from diabetes, a serious chronic disease. The figure is expected to swell to 330 million by 2025.
He attributed the increase in diabetics to population growth, increase in senior citizens, urbanisation, consumption of unhealthy food and lack of exercise.
Dr Yao said in Malaysia, Impaired Glucose Tolerance -- a condition if not controlled could lead to diabetes -- was high among the adults, with about 400,000 probable diabetics.
He said diabetes could lead to complications like heart problems, stroke, kidney failure, impotency and leg amputation.
The risk of leg amputation among diabetics was 30 per cent more than normal people while impotency due to damaged nerves was prevalent in more than one-third of male diabetics, he said.
Dr Yao said diabetes is the main cause of kidney failures among the people in developing countries.
In Malaysia, the National Renal Registry data showed diabetes was the prime cause of end-stage kidney failures, with 44 per cent new patients requiring dialysis are diabetics, he added.