China and Britain have jointly founded the Beijing Chaoyang Diabetes Hospital, the largest of its kind on the mainland. The formal opening was held on Sunday. 

The 10,000-square-meter hospital uses the same diagnostic and therapeutic standards as the Royal College of Physicians in Britain.

“It is a significant step for the two countries to work together in the field of diabetes research,” said Wang Zhili, president of the new hospital.

Wu Jieping, urologist and honorary president of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, said at the opening ceremony that the outlook for health conditions in the country is not bright. Those over the age of 40 see a pronounced decline in their physical strength, and 60 percent of those in middle age have health problems. Among those over 60, he said, virtually everyone has two or three ailments.

Following cancer and vascular disease, diabetes has become the third biggest killer of human beings.

S.R. Bloom, president of the British Endocrine Society, said that with a more sedentary lifestyle and age, the incidence and mortality rate of diabetes grow rapidly. Related research is a matter of international concern.

The World Health Organization reports that 4 million people worldwide die of diabetes and related complications every year. It estimates that at the start of this century, more than 177 million people suffered from the disease, and expects the figure to climb to 300 million or more by 2025.

China follows only India in terms of numbers of sufferers of Type 2 diabetes. Sedentary lifestyle and excess weight are considered primary contributors to its onset, but substantial ethnic differences in susceptibility appear to place Asians at greater risk.

(Xinhua News Agency, China.org.cn July 19, 2004)