Diabetes patients in China should be encouraged to monitor their daily blood glucose levels themselves, suggested experts following the introduction of the OneTouch Ultra Blood Glucose Monitoring System to China.

The system, produced by LifeScan, Inc, a Johnson & Johnson company, and approved by the State Food and Drug Administration in Beijing, enables patients to monitor their blood glucose levels themselves, helping them to maintain normal levels.

Diabetes is developing at an astonishing speed in China, with the number of patients estimated to have reached 40 million, with type 2 diabetes accounting for more than 90 per cent of the cases.

In recent years, a lowering of the incidence age of type 2 diabetes is surfacing in China, and the disease has hit some people in their 20s, 30s, and some over-weight teenagers are also affected, noted Yuan Shenyuan, director of the Beijing Office of Diabetes Prevention and Control.

The disease, which used to commonly hit people in their 50s and beyond, is seeing an increasing number of cases before that age, such cases now accounting for 30 per cent of new victims.

Also, the incidence rate has already approached 10 per cent in some communities in Beijing and Shanghai, while in a national survey of 300,000 people in 1980, the average figure for the whole country was less than 1 per cent, according to professor Yuan.

Low awareness

About 70 to 80 per cent of diabetes patients hospitalized are there because of improper personal care, according to Li Mingzi, head of the education division of the China Diabetes Society of the Chinese Medical Association.

"Only one-third of the diabetes patients have gone to see a doctor, while 70 per cent are not aware that they have the disease," said Yuan, who described diabetes as an invisible killer, attacking the patients' internal organs.

In Beijing's Tongren Hospital which is well-known for its ophthalmology department, there are about 1,400 outpatient visitors every day, one-fifth of whom turn out to have diabetes complications, according to Yuan, who is also a doctor at Tongren.

"Most diabetes patients are not aware of the importance of blood sugar monitoring," said Du Xueping, chief of Fuxing Hospital in Beijing.

In the community service centres of Fuxing Hospital which were started in 1995, a large proportion of diabetes patients Du and his colleages kept in contact with were diagnosed as having diabetes when they were being checked for other diseases. Only 8 per cent of the diabetes patients visiting Du's hospital were aware they had the disease.

"So it can be imagined how many potential diabetes patients are hidden among the common population," said Du.

Enhancing monitoring

"Blood sugar level monitoring by the patients themselves allows them to watch over their own blood sugar conditions," said Du, who especially stressed the importance of blood glucose monitoring after meals.

"Diabetes is a chronic disease and a radical cure is still not available. So lifetime monitoring and treatment are required," said Li Mingzi.

"If one finds out in time that his blood glucose level is abnormal, he can quickly adjust his dieting, sports, and also drug use under the direction of doctor," said Li. "Upon adopting these measures, he can see that his blood glucose level is kept at normal levels, and can also live a long, healthy, and happy life," Li said.

Blood sugar monitoring provides scientific information feedback to the patients, who can then set their minds at rest when eating and working.

Lu Xiaoli, a journalist from China Children's newspaper, had diabetes for years. She had to always carry with her a hypodermic needles, a blood glucose monitoring system, and some insulin, wherever she went.

"Now I am feeling at ease as I can always know my blood sugar level. Now I don't think I live a life different from other people's any more," she said.

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