China's annual $ 26 billion Bill diabetes is triggered, researchers say

related to diabetes, medical costs in China, estimated at 173.4 billion yuan ($ 26 billion) a year, fires in 10 to 20 years of 100 million patients seeking treatment and care for ailments related, as renal failure, stroke and blindness, health officials said.

Diabetes accounts for about 13 percent of medical costs in China, the International Diabetes Federation, said in a statement distributed before a press conference today in Beijing to mark World Diabetes Day. The finding is based on preliminary data from a national survey completed in August.

China diabetics report three to four times more hospitalizations for patients and visits to the emergency room, than people without the condition, scientists at the Brussels-based federation and the Chinese Society of Diabetes, said. The investigation follows a March study, show that China has 92.4 million people with diabetes, more than double the previous estimate, and most of the world.

"The prevalence of diabetes has soared in China and people who get diabetes at a younger age," said the federation. "China has a real window of opportunity to prevent an epidemic of serious complications of diabetes, increasing spending dramatically."

China has lost 558 billion U.S. dollars of national income to the disease of diabetes and heart between 2005 and 2015, the World Health Organization and the World Economic Forum said in a 2008 report. Smoking, changes in diet and sedentary lifestyles are fueling an increase in heart disease and stroke in China to kill an additional 7.7 million people in the next two decades, researchers at Columbia University in New York, said in May.

Stroke, blindness

Medical costs related to diabetes, "increase rapidly" in the next two decades, some 50 million Chinese undiagnosed seek medical attention, and as 50 million Chinese and whose disease has been identified to begin developing preventable complications, such as stroke, blindness and kidney disease, the federation said today.

Health expenditures for people in China who have had diabetes for at least a decade more than five times those of patients who have had the condition for one to two years, he said.

Less than 5 percent of Chinese people with diabetes have experienced a stroke, heart attack and heart failure, and less than 5 percent reported kidney disease, eye surgery, or problems with the feet or legs, according to the results of the survey. About 5,000 people were interviewed between January 2008 and August 2010 at 12 sites for the nationally representative study. The first results are based on 1,920 responses from five sites.

While half of respondents hypoglycemic drug use, only 1 percent used drugs for cholesterol and 13 percent take aspirin to prevent stroke.

"These drugs used are inexpensive and highly effective and together we can reduce the risk of complications by 50 percent or more," said federation