China is World’s Capital for Diabetes, from Pitt T. Maner III
The economic impacts of disease and an aging population appear to be a big concern in China. Their problem is diabetes. The longer term, additional strain on the health care system and society may be more than the $28 billion per year, all things considered.
One would think that an "authoritarian" regime interested in keeping annual rate GDP >7 at all costs would institute bigger changes than bans on "Big Gulps".
China has almost four times as many people with diabetes than the U.S., where there are 23.7 million sufferers, according to the IDF. By 2030, 40 million more will have the condition in China, where diabetes causes 173.4 billion yuan ($28 billion) a year in medical costs, the diabetes group estimates."
China, unfortunately, has become the world's capital for diabetes," said Michael Rosenblatt, Merck's chief medical officer, in an Oct. 25 interview in Shanghai. "
The government is starting to pay more attention as this is the beginning of a huge problem, both health and economic."'