However, most Vietnamese are unaware of the disease’s danger and many of them don’t even know they have the illness until its complications appear, said Professor Pham Song, President of the Vietnam Medical Federation, at a seminar in Hanoi on November 14.

Statistics by the national endocrinological hospital show that as many as 67 percent of the Vietnamese diabetics only discover they have the disease because of complications.

In Vietnam, diabetes is one of the four diseases that have developed the fastest, next to cancer, cardiovascular disease and obesity. It’s expected that the number of Vietnamese diabetics will reach 10 million over the next 10 years.

Prof Song told the seminar on solutions for diabetics and high-risk people that each year some 3.2 million people die of diabetes in the world, which is equal to the number of AIDS fatalities.  He also said that annual costs for diagnosing, treating and preventing the disease range between US$232-430 billion.