There was an interesting contributed article in the Asia Times Online (spotted via China Digital Times) about a disease that poses a very serious threat to Asia. Not bird flu (still mostly affecting birds it turns out, despite apocalyptic media coverage) or HIV/AIDS or even the dreaded pig-eliminating Strep suis, but diabetes.

Diabetes as a topic comes up from time to time, and then tends to slip below the radar. As a non-communicable disease, it doesn't seem to arouse peoples' fear the same way that, well, the specter of bird flu is. It's the traffic accident of diseases. You know it's there, and it's killing people or making their lives difficult, but, hey, it won't happen to me.

The author of this piece, Professor Paul Zimmet, tries to put diabetes back into perspective:
In the next decade, the number of global lives claimed by diabetes is set to grow by a quarter, driven by rising obesity and inactivity. It could cause the first life-expectancy reduction in more than 200 years. And nowhere is the problem more serious than in Asia.

In Asia there are now 90 million people with diabetes. Asia is home to four of the world's five largest diabetic populations - India, 33 million people with diabetes; China, 23 million; Pakistan, 9 million; and Japan, 7 million. The United States is also in the top five with an estimated 18 million suffering from the disease.

Globally the WHO estimates the global diabetes population will grow to more than 200 million in 2010 and 330 million in 2025. The burden in Asia will increase - in less than a decade 60% of all diabetes cases globally will be owned by Asia.

Asia should be in a state of panic. While diabetes can be treated, with limited access to treatments a majority of people affected will die prematurely. Even with treatments diabetes kills people prematurely, as well as robs them of their quality of life, and puts significant strain on resources.
My wife is a professional nutritionist and she is fairly appalled by the way people eat, not just here in Beijing (where the food, while often tasty, is not what anyone would describe as "healthy"), but also in her home country of Singapore. Widespread consumption of highly refined starches, a taste for sweets and a decreasing level of physical activity are all adding up to a spreading problem, if you will. According to the WHO's figures, about 10% of Singapore's population was afflicted in 2000. If accurate, that's pretty shocking. China is big by numbers due to its population size, but falls a ways short of leage-table leader India and perennial strong-finishers the US in terms of percentage of the population. That might change as wealth spreads in China, bringing such blessings of modern civilization as Pizza Hut, KFC and the cute-but-sinister Bread Talk (a Singaporean export specializing in sugary, fluffy breads and gaining popularity in Beijing).

It's an issue that hits close to home for my wife, who's father has adult-onset diabetes, and who's grandmother was plagued by serious complications from the same. Now poor diet and exercise habits are making type-2 diabetes a disease of middle adulthood and even childhood, and no longer just an affliction of elderly.

While I think it's dangerous rhetorical ground to argue about which disease is more serious --AIDS transmissibility and ability to wipe out the most productive members of a society make it still a disease to be taken with the utmost seriousness-- its good to keep diabetes from slipping below the radar. Especially as it transforms from an affliction of the elderly and unlucky into a lifestyle disease.

Worth a read.*

*Update: But outed as PR by Zhuanjia. See comments.