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ลำดับตอนที่ #89 : Deadly diabetes in 'unrelenting march'
In a major report it warned cases had nearly quadrupled to 422 million
in 2014 from 108 million in 1980.
High
blood sugar levels are a major killer - linked to 3.7 million deaths around the
world each year, it says.
And
officials said the numbers would continue to increase unless "drastic action" was
taken.
The
report lumps both
type 1 and type 2 diabetes together, but the surge in cases is predominantly down to type 2 - the form closely
linked to poor lifestyle.
As
the world's waistlines
have ballooned - with one-in-three people now overweight, so too has the number
of diabetes cases.
Dr Etienne Krug, the
WHO official in charge of leading efforts against diabetes, told the BBC:
"Diabetes is a silent disease, but it is on an unrelenting march that we
need to stop.
"We can stop it,
we know what needs to be done, but we cannot let it evolve like it does because
it has a huge impact on people's health, on families and on society."
Failing to control
levels of sugar in the blood has devastating health consequences.
It triples the risk of
a heart attack and leaves people 20 times more likely to have a leg amputated, as well as
increasing the risk of stroke,
kidney failure, blindness and complications in pregnancy.
Diabetes
itself is the eighth biggest killer in the
world, accounting for 1.5 million deaths each year.
But
a further 2.2 million deaths are linked to high blood sugar levels. And 43% of
the deaths were before the age of 70.
Moving burden
In
the 1980s the highest rates were found in affluent countries.
But,
in a remarkable transformation, it is now low and middle income countries
bearing the largest burden.
Dr
Krug told the BBC News website: "That's where we see the steepest
increase. Knowing that's where most of the population lives in the world, it
does show numbers will continue to increase unless drastic action is
taken."
The Middle East has
seen the prevalence
of diabetes soar from 5.9% of adults in 1980 to 13.7% in 2014.
Dr
Slim Slama, a WHO specialist in region, told the BBC News website: "We are
the region that has experienced the greatest rise in diabetes, moving from 6
million to 43 million - it is a huge, huge increase.
"In
Qatar or Kuwait we have more than 20% of the population with diabetes and when
you look at subgroups - people beyond 45 or 60 years old - it's 30-40% and
things are even more worrying."
He
said growing and ageing populations were behind part of the rise, but diet and
inactivity were a major problem.
More
than three quarters of teenagers in the region are doing less than the
recommended level of exercise, he said.
Action
The
WHO report said the solution required the whole of society to act.
"The
'easy' solution is for all of us to exercise, eat healthily and not gain excess
weight - of course it's not so easy," said Dr Krug.
He
called for governments to regulate the fat and sugar content of foods to ensure
there were healthy options available to people.
Better
urban planning that enabled people to cycle and walk was also essential as was
encouraging breastfeeding, he added.
And
he also called on the food industry to act responsibly to ensure it reduced the
fat and sugar content of foods, and to cease marketing unhealthy foods to young
people.
It
is only by keeping blood sugar levels in check that the deadly complications of
the disease can be contained.
But
the report showed that two thirds of low income countries were not able to
provide blood sugar monitors or drugs such as insulin or metformin for most
people.
Dr
Krug concluded: "Two things really worry me when I read this report.
"One
is that one-in-11 people today have diabetes. And the other is the lack of
fairness. Today in most low income countries, people who have diabetes and need
access to medicine and technology to manage it don't have access to it."
Unrelenting
(adj.)
extremely determined; never becoming weaker or admittingdefeat:
quadrupled (v.)
to become four times as big, or to multiply a number or amount by four:
drastic (adj.)
(especially of actions) severe and sudden or having very noticeable effects:
lumps (n.)
a piece of a solid substance, usually with no particularshape:
a
hard swelling found in or on the body, especially because of illness or injury:
surge (n.)
a sudden and great increase:
predominantly (adv.)
waistlines (n.)
an imaginary line going round the narrowest part of yourwaist:
amputate
(v.)
to cut off a part of the body:
stroke (n,)
a sudden change in the blood supply to a part of the brain, sometimes causing a loss of the ability to moveparticular parts of the body:
burden (n.)
a heavy load that you carry:
something difficult or unpleasant that you have to deal with or worry about:
affluent
(Adj.)
having a lot of money or owning a lot of things:
prevalence (n.)
the fact of something
existing or happening often :
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