At least two new diabetes cases are diagnosed at the CWM Hospital daily, which does not account for other new cases diagnosed at the health centers.

This is another alarming revelation by the Ministry of Health, as only last week it highlighted that over 12, 000 Fijians have died in the past two years due to non-communicable disease-related complications.

The Ministry has labeled this a silent epidemic because Fiji has a very young population, and the majority of the patients are in their 30s and even 20s.

Speaking on FBC TV’s 4 the record program last night, Colonial War Memorial Hospital’s General Surgeon, Dr Ilaitia Delasau highlighted that non-communicable disease leads to three main medical problems – high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity.

“We are if not the highest number of diabetes diagnosed per year in the world if we’re not the highest, and every year it is increasing.”

Doctor Delasau says as a surgeon he deals with a lot of complications of diabetes and the majority of them are presented at a late stage.

“The majority of times we see patients in the hospital coming with severe foot sepsis, not knowing they are diabetic.”

Doctor Delasau is stressing that if a person’s sore or cut is taking longer to heal, it is critical to get your diabetes checked.

The last study in Fiji revealed that in every 12.6 hours, someone loses part of their limb.