THE Aboriginal population of Australia could be wiped out by the
end of the century unless urgent action is taken to curb a global
diabetes disaster described as the "biggest epidemic in world
history".
International experts will converge on Melbourne today for a
three-day crisis summit convened to put pressure on the United
Nations to tackle the threat of extinction facing indigenous
communities around the world.
The so-called "Cocacolanisation" of traditional cultures, with
communities adopting Western lifestyles and fast-food diets, has
been blamed for a rapid rise in type 2 diabetes.
An estimated one in five indigenous Australians has diabetes.
Inadequate access to health care means many cases are undiagnosed,
resulting in blindness, kidney disease and amputations.
"If we don't do something, there is a real chance that
Australia's indigenous community will be wiped out by the end of
the century," said Monash University professor of diabetes Paul
Zimmet, who is one of the organisers of the forum being staged by
the International Diabetes Federation.
"The world needs to act now if we're to deal with this problem,
which threatens to consume world economies and bankrupt health
systems.
"We are dealing with the biggest epidemic in world history."
Professor Zimmet said the Aboriginal community had one of the
lowest life expectancies in the world. For every diagnosed case of
diabetes, up to four went undiagnosed, he said.
"Fatty foods and foods rich in refined sugars are being eaten by
these communities instead of their traditional foods," he said.
"Then you've also got … indigenous people who leave their
homeland and come into the city, where they meet the same thing.
This really is the biggest epidemic Australia's ever faced in our
indigenous community."
There are an estimated 350 million indigenous people worldwide.
The diabetes epidemic is mirrored in Asia, the Pacific, Canada, New
Zealand and North and South America. Up to half the adults on the
Pacific island of Nauru and 45 per cent of Sioux and Pima Indians
in the US have type 2 diabetes. In Canada and the Torres Strait
Islands, 30 per cent of the indigenous populations have the
disease. In the Torres Strait, children as young as six are being
diagnosed and some are suffering heart attacks and renal failure in
their early teens.
The link between obesity and diabetes is so well established
that experts refer to "diabesity" as a disease in its own
right.
Canadian expert Stewart Harris said diabetes had replaced
infectious diseases as the main threat to indigenous people.
"Obesity in particular is driving the epidemic and …
debilitating complications are often evident by the age of 30,"
Professor Harris said.
Future generations are also at risk. One in five pregnancies
among indigenous women is affected by diabetes and cases will rise
by about 5 to 10 per cent a year without intervention.
Delegates at today's Diabetes in Indigenous People Forum will
look at the economic burden of the disease.
Professor Zimmet said governments in developed countries,
including Australia, were reluctant to make changes. He called for
a United Nations resolution declaring diabetes an international
disaster.
www.idf.org
www.unitefordiabetes.org
