By D. Arul Rajoo
BANGKOK, Oct 24 (Bernama) -- Governments across the region may be rushing to contain the spread of bird flu virus but a health expert warn a much greater health concern that can cost Asian economies up to US$500 million in the next decade is being overlooked.
International Diabetes Institute Director Prof Paul Zimmet said diabetes was far more certain than bird flu to prematurely claim millions of lives.
Similarly, diabetes-related deaths in Asia over the next few decades would dwarf those caused by HIV/AIDS, he said.
"It is not the bird flu or HIV/AIDS, but it is the killer disease (diabetes) that we are not prepared for, with the potential to claim millions of lives," he said in a text released in conjunction with the Sixth International Diabetes Federation conference for Asia being held here.
Zimmet said the public cannot be blamed for thinking bird flu would be the major threat for Asia in the coming decades due to wide publicity, huge response from world leaders and scientists.
"After all, an Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) meeting has been called to focus on bird flu, scientists are fretting over a bird flu vaccine, and Asian bird flu casualties are being cited as early signs of potential pandemic," he said.
Zimmet said diabetes posed more direct threat to human population and cited the World Health Organisation's (WHO) recent report that chronic diseases, dominated by diabetes, now cause twice the number of deaths than infections diseases (including HIV), maternal/pre-natal conditions, and nutritional deficiencies combined.He said in the next decade, the number of global lives claimed by diabetes was set to grow by a quarter, driven by rising obesity and inactivity."It could cause the first life expectancy reduction in more than 200 years. And nowhere is the problem more serious than in Asia," said Zimmet, who is also Head of WHO's Collaborating Centre for the Epidemiology of Diabetes.
Zimmet said there are now 90 million people with diabetes in Asia and it is home to four of the world's five largest diabetic population -- India (33 million), China (23 million), Pakistan (nine million) and Japan (seven million).
Globally, WHO estimates the diabetes population would grow to more than 200 million in 2010 and 330 million in 2025, said Zimmet, who warned that 60 per cent of global diabetes cases would be in Asia in less than a decade."
Asia should be in a state of panic. While diabetes can be treated, with limited access to treatments a majority of diabetics will die prematurely."
There is often a misconception that diabetes is not lethal, with deaths often attributed to complications rather than the disease itself," he said.
Zimmet said diabetes puts people at risk of many diseases and premature death as it causes damage to many body tissues and progresses to stroke, heart disease, kidney failure, blindness, susceptibility to serious infections and amputations due to loss of circulation.
One of the major factors that saw diabetes increasing in Asia is progressive westernisation or "Coca-Colonisation" of its countries that has seen the adoption of fatty food diets and sedentary lifestyles, he said.
"Disturbingly, the non-insulin dependant variety of diabetes (type 2) with typical onset in late adulthood in most parts of the world, is surfacing in children in Asia," he said.
With scare health resources, Zimmet said Asia was ill-prepared to tackle diabetes effectively and was likely to be distracted by more immediate threats such as bird flu.
Zimmet said there was no doubt that if bird flu was serious enough to warrant an APEC meeting later this year, a similar meeting on diabetes was long overdue.-- BERNAMA
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