(IPS) - Ahead of World Diabetes Day, marked on Nov. 14, a leading British medical journal has issued a grim warning to Asian countries. Type-2 diabetes among the region's children has reached ''epidemic levels,'' says a paper published in 'The Lancet.'
''The onset of type-2 diabetes in younger age-groups is likely to result in major economic burdens for countries in Asia due to premature ill health and death,'' it says. ''People in Asia tend to develop diabetes with a lesser degree of obesity at younger age, suffer longer with complications of diabetes, and die sooner than people in other regions.''
Type-2 diabetes is as troubling among the continent's adults, notes the paper, whose principle writer is Prof. Kun-Ho Yoon, a South Korean diabetes specialist at the Kangnam St. Mary's Hospital in Seoul. ''The proportion of people with type-2 diabetes and obesity have increased throughout Asia, and the rates of increase show no signs of slowing.''
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