
WHO | Addressing Asias fast growing diabetes epidemic
Addressing Asias fast growing diabetes epidemic
Hampered by shortages of resources, specialized services and skilled health workers, India and other countries in south-east Asia are scrambling to respond to type 2 diabetes epidemics. Sophie Cousins reports.
Bulletin of the World Health Organization 2017;95:550-551. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2471/BLT.17.020817
A diabetes nutrition counselling session at Dr Mohans Diabetes Specialities Centre in Chennai.
During a visit to his native village outside the Indian city of Chennai, steel plant worker K Shankar (not his real name), 51, dropped in at Dr Mohans Diabetes Specialities Centre for a check-up, where he discovered his blood sugar was high, though not quite high enough to be type 2 diabetes.
They advised me to change my lifestyle to avoid diabetes, he says. Shankar used to eat a lot of white rice a large part of the diet of Indias 1.3 billion population but has since switched to smaller quantities of brown rice with lots of vegetables. He also goes for a walk twice a day.
Set up in 1991, the centre is part of a network of 32 private clinics offering care for some 400 000 diabetes patients across nine Indian states. The centre has also become a World Health Organization (WHO) collaborating centre.
Diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs when either the pancreas doesnt produce enough insulin (type 1) or when the body cant effectively use the insulin it produces (type 2).
An estimated 422 million adults were living with diabetes in 2014, according to WHOs Global report on diabetes 2016.
Between 1980 and 2014, the
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