A two-day conference of global Endocrinologists held in Kuching, Sarawak this week saw Malaysia’s National Diabetes Institute (NADI) executive chairman Dr. Mustaffa Embong tell attendees that our country now has the highest rate of the disease in Asia.
Dr. Embong said that there were currently 2.5 million adults with diabetes in Malaysia, proportionately one of the highest rates in the world next to Saudi Arabia. Worryingly, the chairman also states that NADI statistics point to many more who live unaware of the disease until catastrophic circumstances lead to a diagnosis.
“Most of the time, those with Type 2 diabetes do not have any symptoms at all until they develop a heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, blindness or need amputations,” he told doctors from the Unites States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Europe and Asia.
Diabetes has long been a worry of health officials in Malaysia: Last year, former Health Minister Dr. S. Subramaniam released a statement saying there were up to 1.8 million un-diagnosed cases in the country, essentially walking health time bombs. Malaysian women were also found to not only be the heaviest in Southeast Asia, but also those with the highest incidence of diabetes in the region.
Enough. Sugar. Kurang kurang manis.
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