A RECENT study indicates that there are three million diabetics in Malaysia and 16 per cent of the national budget for healthcare goes to treat diabetes and related complications, like kidney failures, limb amputations and blindness due to nerve damage.
Diabetes has no outward symptoms and will silently damage the nerves, which leads to organ failure.
Only a blood test will establish whether people are diabetic or pre-diabetic.
When people are found to be diabetic, medication and counselling on diet and a healthy lifestyle prevent serious complications.
When people are found to be pre-diabetic, counselling on diet and a healthy lifestyle can prevent the onset of the disease.
Singapore has taken measures like having mobile clinics to screen people for diabetes and lessons on diabetes prevention for schoolchildren.
Similarly, we hope that the Health Ministry will have mobile clinics to screen and educate people on diabetes.
Those in rural areas and the poor have poor knowledge of diabetes and its complications.
Thomas Foo, Subang Jaya, Kuala Lumpur