5% of Vietnam Population Suffer from Diabetes

Around 5% of Vietnam’s 87-million population catch diabetes and between 15%-20% are facing a high risk of developing diabetes or pre-diabetes, the Central Endocrine Hospital said in its recent survey. The survey was released at conference held in the northern province of Bac Ninh on March 14 to launch the 2011 plan to prevent the iodine deficiency-related disorders in northern provinces. Lifestyle changes, lack off physical activity and unhealthy eating habit are blamed to the rising infection rate of the disease in Vietnam, experts said. The health ministry will improve screening to find new diabetes cases and better supervising the high-risk groups and diabetes patients in the coming years. Diabetes cannot be cured yet, but 80% of type 2 diabetes patients can change the course of the disease with a healthy diet and regular exercise, experts noted. Between 80% and 90% of diabetic patients in developing countries, including Vietnam are in delitescence period, which is higher than developed nations with 30%, showed statistics of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF). Most of these people are unaware of the diabetes’ danger and even don’t know their illness until its complications appear, they attributed. The nation is listed among the world’s top ten countries with the highest rate of diabetic patients with more than 32,000 Vietnamese people were likely to die from diabetes’ complications in 2010. Diabetes ranks the fourth among diseases causing the highest fatality rate in the Southeast Asian country, experts noted.  (An Ninh Thu Do – Capital Security Mar 16 p6, vietnamplus.vn Mar 15, Tien Phong Mar 15 p2)