MANILA, Philippines - The number of Filipinos with diabetes--a metabolic disorder with serious complications like stroke, nerve damage and kidney failure—could nearly double in the next 17 years, an alarming trend that mirrors the global situation, health experts said Tuesday
As of 2010, the number of diabetics was listed at 3.4 million, and at the rate cases are increasing, that figure could be 6.16 million in 2030, said the experts.
Dr. Joey Miranda, secretary of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinology-Philippines, said the 3.4 million diabetes cases in 2010 meant a prevalence rate of 7.7 percent, which is seen to rise to 8.9 percent or 6.16 million cases in year 2030.
Miranda said in a press conference there’s just no underestimating the problem, considering the myriad health problems associated with diabetes. “This will be a big problem that we will encounter in 2030. We already have a big problem at present what more about 17 years from now? Our hands will be full in tackling this problem.”
He echoed earlier characterizations of diabetes being a “growing global epidemic.” Some 360 million diabetics worldwide were counted in 2011, and, Miranda said, this was projected to increase to 550 million by year 2030.
Dr. Elizabeth Paz-Pacheco, former president of the Philippine Society of Endocrinology and Metabolism, underscored the need to mitigate the effects of diabetes by focusing on prevention and proper management of cases.
One way, she said, is to get the blood sugar to normalize as quickly as possible “for the majority of patients who are newly diagnosed, younger and they have a longer life ahead of them.”
For those who cannot do so, a lifestyle change and obedience to the drug regimen prescribed by doctors is necessary to prevent diabetes complications.
Diabetes is described in a fact sheet given out by the health experts as “a serious, lifelong disease and is a disorder of metabolism – the way our body uses the food we eat for growth and energy.”
The long-term complications of diabetes include blindness, heart and blood vessel disease, kidney failure, amputation of limbs, nerve damage and stroke.
Type 1 diabetes is caused by a genetic predisposition and Type 2, which accounts for over 90 percent of Philippine cases, is associated with lifestyle. The last type is gestational diabetes, a condition of pregnant women during pregnancy.
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