Health Minister Rosy Akbar has pleaded with the public to take their health seriously with the high number of deaths from diabetes.
Currently, there are 500 Fijians living with Type 1 Diabetes from 2014 to 2018.
Akbar says the youngest person living with Type 1 Diabetes is two years old, at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital.
She adds that at one time diabetes was mostly with elderly people but it’s coming down to young people now.
The youngest person living with Gestational Diabetes is 19-years old.
The Minister says it’s very important to include everyone in the family be aware of diabetes including the person buying the food, the person preparing the food, the person serving the food etc.
Fiji continues to rank high in terms of Non-Communicable Diseases and earlier this year was noted to have the highest rate of diabetes-related deaths.
Akbar highlighted that 80% of deaths that happen in Fiji is because of NCDs. Cardiovascular diseases, hypertension and diabetes is on the rise.
This poses a lot of challenges to health professionals and puts a lot of pressure on hospitals.
