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"Diabetes Triples in NSW
A THREE-fold increase in diabetes cases in New South Wales has prompted calls for a coordinated plan to combat the epidemic.
Diabetes Australia says 542,288 people in NSW now suffer some form of the disease – a 300 per cent increase on 10 years ago.
As many as 1.2 million Australians have the disease, the organisation said, and if trends continue, two million will have it by 2010.
But the research, presented at a diabetes summit in Sydney today, showed only half of all sufferers knew they had the disease.
In NSW, the highest rates of diabetes were recorded in Aboriginal communities, lower socio-economic groups, and in regional communities such as Broken Hill and Dubbo.
Complications of diabetes include increased risks of heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, retinal damage, and amputation.
Among its findings released today, the NSW branch of Diabetes Australia said there had been a doubling of type two diabetes cases in the state in the past five years.
The number of cases in those aged under 18 had increased by between five and 10 per cent annually.
Diabetes Australia NSW president Dr Neville Howard said the trends were "very worrisome".
It would require a coordinated effort to arrest the rise of the disease, and the pressure it put on health services and the public purse.
"By 2010 or 2020 things will be out of control from the perspective of the general community and in health costs," Dr Howard said.
"It is going to require an education campaign to tell the whole community.
"It needs to be a coordinated series of health messages that reach not only adults but children, and the parents of children, to prevent this obesity problem which is directly related to these figures.
"There is also a need to be prepared for the increased health requirements that are going to be needed to deal with people who have diabetes and have complications."
The summit's keynote speaker, US endocrinologist Professor Francine Kaufman, said the rising number of children with type two diabetes was a major concern.
"We used to call it adult onset diabetes," she said.
"Children did not have this disease before. So this is a hugely new phenomenon for us."
Prof Kaufman said the solution to the diabetes epidemic was simple – more activity, better quality food, and the right portion sizes.
"We need a change of culture like we did around smoking and the anti-tobacco campaign," Prof Kaufman said.
"It involves education, legislation, litigation and negotiation."
Today's figures also revealed a three per cent annual increase in the number of children being diagnosed with type one diabetes, while the number of women with gestational diabetes had more than doubled in five years.
NSW Health Minister John Hatzistergos, who opened the summit, again called for greater responsibility in junk food advertising.
Ads for such products must reflect the fact that they are "sometimes foods, not all the time foods," he said.