December 15, 2008
Bangkok - The number of Thai children who develop diabetes tends to increase more at the rate of 200 per day, according to the public health ministry.
Dr. Praj Boonyavongviroj, permanent secretary for public health, said diabetes disease is becoming the health problem worldwide.
It tends to become more serious since more patients, especially children and youths, are developing this disease.
There were 246 million diabetes patients in 2007.
Nearly four million people died in each year. The death rate was close to that caused by the AIDs.
200 more children per day developed diabetes because of their behaviors.
The patients could be burden in the long run considering the medical bills and complications. The disease will averagely make a patient’s life 10-20 years shorter.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has campaigned for weight loss to solve the diabetes problem this year.
The major cause of the disease is obesity (80%), and about 15 million Thais are obese.
The highest obesity number was in Bangkok, followed by central region, north, south and northeast respectively.
