China and Britain have jointly founded the Beijing Chaoyang
Diabetes Hospital, the largest of its kind on the mainland. The
formal opening was held on Sunday.?
The 10,000-square-meter hospital uses the same diagnostic and
therapeutic standards as the Royal College of Physicians in
Britain.
“It is a significant step for the two countries to work together
in the field of diabetes research,” said Wang Zhili, president of
the new hospital.
Wu Jieping, urologist and honorary president of the Chinese
Academy of Medical Sciences, said at the opening ceremony that the
outlook for health conditions in the country is not bright. Those
over the age of 40 see a pronounced decline in their physical
strength, and 60 percent of those in middle age have health
problems. Among those over 60, he said, virtually everyone has two
or three ailments.
Following cancer and vascular disease, diabetes has become the
third biggest killer of human beings.
S.R. Bloom, president of the British Endocrine Society, said
that with a more sedentary lifestyle and age, the incidence and
mortality rate of diabetes grow rapidly. Related research is a
matter of international concern.
The World Health Organization reports that 4 million people
worldwide die of diabetes and related complications every year. It
estimates that at the start of this century, more than 177 million
people suffered from the disease, and expects the figure to climb
to 300 million or more by 2025.
China follows only India in terms of numbers of sufferers of
Type 2 diabetes. Sedentary lifestyle and excess weight are
considered primary contributors to its onset, but substantial
ethnic differences in susceptibility appear to place Asians at
greater risk.
(Xinhua News Agency, China.org.cn July 19, 2004)