‘Diabetes, hypertension, heart disease remain a headache in S’wak’
NON- communicable diseases ( NCD) such as diabetes, hypertension and heart disease continue to pose problems in Sarawak, the august House was told.
Up to September 2018, a total of 150,149 old and newly diagnosed diabetes mellitus cases were registered in Sarawak, said Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian.
For hypertension, he said the cumulative number of diagnosed cases continues to increase, from 137,713 cases in 2017 to 357,268 cases in 2018, making the prevalence of hypertension in Sarawak at 16.4 per cent.
Dr Sim said many Sarawakians are unaware of their sugar level and blood pressure as they did not undergo health screenings.
“We urge the people of Sarawak to go for health screenings to know your health status.
“If found to have a disease, early treatment can be given and possible complications can be avoided,” he said in his winding-up speech yesterday.
Dr Sim said efforts for early detection of NCD at community-level, such as Komuniti Sihat Pembina Negara ( Kospen) and early intervention to high-risk groups to prevent complications of NCD, were also on-going.
He also revealed that as of Oct 27 this year, 540 dengue cases were reported in Sarawak compared to 834 cases over the same period in 2017 – a decrease of 35.3 per cent.
He said the state Health Department was committed to continue collaborating with the community and other non-health agencies in the state to further prevent and reduce dengue cases in Sarawak.
As Sarawak has been free from indigenous human malaria (falciparum and malariae malaria since 2013 and vivax malaria since 2016), he said everyone must be cautious with imported malaria cases so that the infection is not reintroduced back to the state.
He noted that to- date, 251 imported human malaria cases were reported as compared to 163 cases over the same period last year.
These imported human malaria cases, he added, were mostly brought into the state by Sarawakians who became infected while working overseas.
“We urge companies who have Sarawakians working in malaria- endemic countries to be more proactive and responsible by ensuring that the returning workers are free from malaria,” he said.