2.6 million locals expected to suffer from diabetes

NST: PETALING JAYA: The number of Malaysians having diabetes mellitus by the end of this year is expected to reach 2.6 million with the majority in the Type 2 category.
According to the national mortality and morbidity survey by the Health Ministry, the rise from 8.7 per cent in 1997 to 10.2 per cent this year represents about a 25 per cent increase in the total number of cases over the last 10 years.
The rise corresponds with worldwide projections by the World Health Organisation which anticipates the numbers to increase by 120 per cent by the year 2025, affecting 300 million people.
University Malaya Medical Centre director Prof Dr Ikram Shah Ismail, who is also Malaysian Diabetes Association (MDA) president, said:
"There are many Malaysians with this incurable disease who risk diabetic complications like a heart attack, stroke and kidney failure."
He said the root cause of such fatalities was the unwillingness to practise good diabetes management.
There was a need for the people to take a right attitude by having a balanced diet, managing body weight, taking medication and undergoing regular medical follow-ups from young to reduce the risk of diabetic complications, Ikram said at the launch of World Diabetes Day 2007 yesterday.
The ministry's deputy director of disease control, Dr Zainal Ariffin Omar, who launched the event, said there was an increase of diabetes in children.
There were 837 cases in 1999 compared with 1,305 in 2004.
"The main causes of diabetes are lifestyle changes and family genetics which have led to obesity, lack of exercise and nutritional imbalance.
"Although incurable, the disease can be controlled with a combination of exercise, diet and drug therapy," he added.
Diabetes mellitus Type 1 is a disease that results from the permanent destruction of insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas, normally since birth.
This category represents two per cent of the cases in Malaysia.
Diabetes mellitus Type 2 or adult-onset diabetes is a metabolic disorder characterised by insulin deficiency in the human body.
This accounts for 98 per cent of cases in the country.
In conjunction with the event, Ford Malaysia also launched its RM30,000 Ford Diabetic Children's Fund to help underprivileged children diagnosed with diabetes to get monitoring tools and to help them lead a normal life.