Western fast food fuelling SE Asia diabetes boom

KFC shop in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Wednesday, July 07, 2010
AFP

SYDNEY — The growing popularity of Western junk food is fuelling a diabetes boom across Southeast Asia, Australian researchers warned on Wednesday.

Studies found about 11 percent of men and 12 percent of women in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City had type 2 diabetes without knowing it, on top of the four percent of people who are diagnosed sufferers.

"Dietary patterns have been changing dramatically in Vietnam in recent years, particularly in the cities as they become more Westernised," said Tuan Nguyen of Sydney's Garvan Institute of Medical Research.

"There are fast food outlets everywhere."

He said the findings, based on testing a random sample of 721 men and 1,421 women, mirrored the results of a similar study carried out in Thailand.

"Because of that, we feel very confident that we can extrapolate our findings to other parts of Southeast Asia including Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia and Laos," he said.

Type 2, the most common form of diabetes, is caused by high levels of fat and sugar in the diet and a lack of exercise, and can lead to heart disease, vision loss, limb amputation and kidney failure.

Co-author Lesley Campbell said developing countries were facing a "sad story" where they are affected by Western lifestyle diseases alongside hunger and poverty, but without the health resources to treat them.

"Unfortunately, we are watching, in just over a generation, a very rapid increase in diabetes" in developing nations, she said.

The researchers have developed a simple risk assessment for diabetes, using only blood pressure and waist-to-hip ratio, which they hope will help doctors detect those most likely to have the disease.

Cambodia braces for rise in dengue fever cases

2007-06-15

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - Dengue fever has killed 102 children in Cambodia so far this year and is expected to spread further when the rainy season peaks during the next few months, health officials said Friday.

About 7,400 cases have already been reported this year, said Mam Bunheng, Cambodia's Deputy Minister of Health.

He said dengue fever has already killed 102 children, but that the disease has claimed no adult lives this year.

The government launched a nationwide education campaign Friday as part of efforts to keep the mosquito-born disease in check, pleading with people to keep their homes and yards free of stagnant water where mosquitoes can breed.

Last year dengue killed 158 children and 16,650 cases were reported, said Ngan Chantha, director of the National Anti-Dengue Fever Program under the Ministry of Health.

He said the death toll could get much worse at the height of the rainy season, in July and August.

Dengue is a chronic problem in Cambodia, but due to early rains the number of cases is already high this year and could prove to be much worse than last year, said Chang Moh Seng, a dengue control officer at the World Health Organization in Cambodia.

«From the cases reported and the number of deaths, I think the situation is worse than last year,» Chang said.

The WHO is working with the Ministry of Health to promote dengue education in schools and local communities.

Poor Sanitation Triggers Child Health Concerns

Nuch Sarita, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
07/05/2007

Poor sanitation affects 84 percent of rural Cambodians, leading to a high incidence of diarrhea and putting Cambodia low on the list of clean countries, UN health officials say.

Only 65 percent of people outside urban centers have access to safe water, the UN says.

Four out of five people in the agricultural country live outside the cities.

"Water and sanitation have been identified as one of the major causes of the high diarrhea incidence in Cambodia," Unicef Cambodia Project Officer Hilda Winarta said. "In particular, the sanitation situation is very poor. Cambodia has in fact been classified as one of the countries in the world with the lowest sanitation coverage in the rural areas."

Tan Try, a Unicef spokesman, said working with local communities to improve access to safe water and sanitation is one of the organization's Cambodian projects. Known as "Seth Koma" in Khmer, the project helps families with safe water use.

"We provided community hygiene classes to teach villagers how to safely use the water," Tan Try told VOA Khmer. For example, he said, "for some areas that do not have safe water, villagers need to boil water to drink."

One village recently built a new well, giving 10 families access to clean water. An information board nearby clearly explains hygiene. Over the past year, such projects have protected Cambodians from water-borne illnesses.

Unicef began preparations Monday for the International Year of Sanitation in 2008.

Some 6,000 Cambodians die of smoking annually: Report

May 07, 2007

Some 6,000 Cambodians die of cigarette smoking annually, Chinese-language newspaper the Jian Hua Daily on Monday quoted a report from the World Health Organization (WHO) as saying.

Around 28 percent of the kingdom's population, or 4.64 million people, have the habit of smoking, with 54 percent of them being male over 20 years old and the others women and minor, it said.

All Cambodian smokers spend about 16.24 million U.S. dollars per year to buy cigarettes, it added.

Smoking can cut down one's life span by 10 to 20 years, if he smokes more than one pack of cigarettes a day for five to 10 years, the paper quoted local researchers as saying.

The hazardous hobby can lead to cancer, heart attack and tuberculosis, the researchers added.

Source: Xinhua

Cambodia: $70 million goes up in smoke each year

WARNING: Cigarettes smoking may not allow you to rule until 90-year-old
Potential cigarette label warning image in Cambodia
(AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Cambodians spend $70 million in cigarettes per year

05 May 2007
By Kessor Ranya Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

A group of medical experts from the Cambodian Ministry of Health and the World health Organization (WHO) in Cambodia said that Cambodians are spending upward of $70 million per year on cigarettes and tobacco.

Dr Yil Daravuth, an official of the Ministry of Health and who is in charge of the program “the start of no cigarette smoke,” gave details on this huge expense: “According to research by the National Statistics Institute in cooperation with the Khmer Lady organization, it was found that, in average, Cambodians spend 14,000 riels (~$3.50) per month to buy cigarettes. For the entire population of 13 million, in total, each year, our people are burning $70 million in money on cigarettes and tobacco…”

Dr Yil Daravuth added that in addition to the loss of several millions in fund uselessly, cigarettes and tobacco are also the sources of several illnesses, such as high blood pressure, heart ailments, lung diseases, and stokes.

Dr Sung Vinatak, director of the “tobacco or health” program of the health improvement department of the Ministry of Health, provided detail on the negative impact of tobacco chewing on health: tobacco is one cause of the short life span.

Dr Sung Vinatak said: “If a person smokes more than one pack of cigarettes per day, for a period of 5 to 10 years, that person will shorten his/her lifespan by 10 to 20 years. If a person smokes and lives until 80 or 90-year-old, without smoking, that person would live even longer than that. In general, it has been shown that cigarette smoking shortens lifespan.”

Dr Yil Daravuth indicated that the current rate of smokers in Cambodia is 28%, one of the highest rates in the world. “The statistics show that 54% of men and 6% of women over 20-year-old are smokers, 11% of children between the age of 13 to 15 are smoking. In total, the rate of smokers is 28%, i.e. 2.6 million of our population are smokers, this is a very large number for Cambodia.”

According to statistics by the WHO and the Ministry of Health, about 6,000 Cambodians die from smoking each year.

Lack of adequate sanitation triggers child health concerns in Cambodia

In rural Cambodia, less than 16 per cent of the population has access to improved sanitation. (Photo: UNICEF Cambodia/2007/Rintala)

Poor sanitation contributes to high diarrhoea incidence among children in Cambodia’s Svay Rieng Province. (Photo: UNICEF Cambodia/2007/Rintala)

By Guy Degan
UNICEF Cambodia

On 7 May, UNICEF hosts the first preparatory meeting for the International Year of Sanitation in 2008, declared by the UN General Assembly to address the global sanitation crisis. Here is a report on the situation in Cambodia.

SVAY RIENG PROVINCE, Cambodia, 4 May 2007 – Rice farmer Vorn Mao is looking forward to the rainy season to flood his family's dry and dusty rice paddies. But for him and his wife Roeung, water not only provides a livelihood. It also has been the cause of some anguish.

Together they look after seven grandchildren while the parents work in the capital, Phnom Penh. During a water shortage a little over a year ago, their five-year-old granddaughter Chenda died from drinking unsafe water.

The grandparents recall how Chenda had a high fever and diarrhoea, and died overnight at the district hospital. Her mother returned from Phnom Penh too late and did not see the girl before she died.

Low coverage in rural areas

UNICEF estimates that only 16 per cent of rural Cambodians have access to adequate sanitation and 65 per cent to safe water. In urban areas the situation is much better, but some 80 per cent of Cambodians still live in the countryside.

“Water and sanitation has been identified as one of the major causes of the high diarrhoea incidence in Cambodia,” says UNICEF Cambodia Project Officer Hilda Winarta. “In particular, the sanitation situation is very poor. Cambodia has in fact been classified as one of the countries in the world with the lowest sanitation coverage in the rural areas.”

Many rural households lack basic sanitation facilities, and awareness of good hygiene practices is limited. There is often no toilet nor any soap for washing hands at home or in school. Children are more likely than adults to touch unclean surfaces and are therefore particularly vulnerable to unhealthy environments.

Improved services and hygiene

Working with local communities to improve access to safe water and sanitation is one of the cornerstones of UNICEF Cambodia's child rights programme – known as ‘Seth Koma’ in the Khmer language. Providing local commune councils with technical assistance and expertise in water and sanitation is a major part of the project.

UNICEF’s aim is twofold: to encourage communities to allocate funding towards water and sanitation services, and to improve their hygiene practices.

At Phoum Thom village a recently built well is now providing 10 families with water for drinking, cooking and washing. An information board beside the well clearly explains what good hygiene is.

“Before, there was no clean water in the commune,” says Khorn Sa Ung, a local council member. “People fetched water from different sources – sometimes from the river, sometimes from the ponds in nearby pagodas – and this water is not clean.”

Water and sanitation access

At the nearby Thlork Primary School, water from a UNICEF-funded well not only provides safe water for drinking but also keeps the school's latrines clean and hygienic. Research indicates that schools with wells and latrines help to keep more children in primary schools, particularly girls.

As a young child, student Rina Phan, now 12, suffered from diarrhoea and typhoid as a result of drinking unsafe water at home. “I think it's important to have clean water, good personal hygiene and good health,” she says.

In the past year, UNICEF has implemented its Seth Koma project in six rural provinces. By improving water and sanitation access and hygiene, the project is helping Cambodians avert the preventable deaths of thousands of young children from diarrhoea and water-borne diseases.