Diabetes causes 10.1% of deaths in Brunei:minister

Brunei’s Health Minister, Mohammad Isham, say Diabetes is the third highest cause of deaths in Brunei since 2012.

The minister said this in his message to commemorate the World Diabetes Day on Thursday, that the latest statistical figures revealed that diabetes caused 10.1 per cent of deaths in the country in 2017.
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He also said the National Health and Nutritional Status Survey in 2011 reported that as many as 12.4 per cent of the population in Brunei were diabetic.
Meanwhile, another population survey of Non-communicable Diseases (NCDs) and Risk Factors in Brunei indicated that 9.7 per cent of Brunei citizens have high blood sugar level.
“What we should know is that diabetes can also cause other non-communicable diseases such as kidney failure and heart disease,’’ Isham warned.
He said diabetes is the main cause of kidney failure where patients need dialysis treatments.
In Brunei, it is estimated that 800 patients who are undergoing renal replacement therapy need hemodialysis.
Coronary heart disease is the country’s second-highest killer where the majority of them were caused by diabetes.