KUALA LUMPUR: Some 300,000 young people in the country are suffering
from Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM), according to endocrinologist
Prof Datuk Dr Wan Mohamad Wan Bebakar
of Universiti Sains Malaysia. He said the number was expected to
increase while T2DM patients worldwide was also expected to increase
from the current 230 million to 440 million by 2030. He said the
increase in the number also meant that the risks were higher for more
young people to suffer from complications of diabetes.
"The fact
is 20.8 per cent of the Malaysian people are suffering from T2DM right
now, five per cent of whom are young people aged between 20 and 25
years.
"The percentage is clearly bigger than in the United
States which only recorded two per cent of young people suffering from
T2DM," he said in a statement in conjunction with the launch of
Kombiglyze Yze Xr, a new pill to treat T2DM.
Wan Mohamad said the
pill had been widely used to treat T2DM in the United States where the
patient would be prescribed to take one pill daily.
"The Type 2
diabetes is the most common form of diabetes and can easily spread if
not controlled. Within certain period of time, the patient will have to
take various types of medicines to treat the disease and its
complications," he said.
Meanwhile,
Sime Darby Healthcare endocrinology expert
Prof Dr SP Chan
said what made it worse was the fact that more than half of T2DM
patients usually failed to keep their blood sugar levels under control.
"Although
they are provided with information on diabetes and continuous supply of
medicine, less than half of them can really control their blood sugar
levels," he said in the joint statement.
In the long run, he said
the patients usually had to deal with other complications, such as
heart attacks, stroke and kidney failure. - Bernama