One in four people in Colombo has diabetes, and 40% of those affected do not know it

About 15 percent of adults in Sri Lanka have diabetes, and around 40 percent of them do not know they have it, the president of the Diabetes Association of Sri Lanka said on Saturday as the country marked World Diabetes Day.

Dr. Manilka Sumanatilleke, who is also a Consultant Endocrinologist at the National Hospital of Sri Lanka, told NewsFirst that diabetes is an increasingly serious health concern in the country.

In Colombo the rate is far higher — one in four people, he said.

The undiagnosed share is the headline figure

The 40 percent figure is the one that carries the practical weight. On Dr. Sumanatilleke’s numbers, roughly two in five Sri Lankan adults living with diabetes have not been diagnosed, which means they are not being treated and are accumulating risk without knowing it.

He also warned that childhood obesity can bring on Type 2 diabetes at an early age, and stressed healthy eating and lifestyle change as the means of preventing onset.

Why 14 November

World Diabetes Day falls on 14 November each year, marking the birthday of Sir Frederick Banting, who helped discover insulin. It was introduced by the International Diabetes Federation and the World Health Organization in 1991, and formally recognised by the United Nations in 2006, Hiru News reported.

This year’s theme stresses early action against the disease, and awareness programmes were organised around the country for the day.

Diabetes is a long-term condition in which blood glucose runs higher than normal, and is one of the principal non-communicable diseases worldwide. Left uncontrolled it can cause heart disease, kidney damage, impaired vision and nerve damage. Health specialists point to a healthy diet, regular physical exercise and weight control as the main ways of reducing the risk of Type 2 diabetes.

Not reported

Neither filing gives the survey, year or sample behind the 15 percent, 40 percent or one-in-four figures, or says whether they are drawn from a national study or an association estimate. Neither gives a national patient count, a trend against earlier years, or a breakdown by sex, age or district beyond Colombo. Neither reports what screening capacity exists in the public system for finding the undiagnosed share Dr. Sumanatilleke describes.