About 70 per cent of the health budget will go to the fund for non-communicable diseases (NCD) in the coming five years if the government is unable to deal with the problem of non-communicable diseases, said Dr. Myint Htwe, Union Minister for Health and Sports at a ceremony to open the diabetics and hypertension screening clinics held at the office of Yangon Region Public Health Department on February 17.

According to the figures collected in 2016, the NCD accounted for 68 per cent of the cause of deaths, cardiovascular for 25 per cent, 13 per cent for cancers, eight per cent for chronic lung and respiratory diseases and diabetics for four per cent.

A total of 382 million world populations are suffering from diabetes. By 2030, the number of people with diabetes is expected to reach 551.8 million.

In 2012, 4.8 million people died from diabetes around the globe. A total of 71 million USD was spent on the treatment on diabetics. Diabetes kills one person every six seconds while every ten seconds, three persons become diabetic.

According to the figures released by International Diabetes Federation (IDF) in November, 2012, about 1.7 million people aged between 20 and 79 are infected with diabetics. About two million people are likely to suffer from diabetics and 1.1 million people do not know they have diabetics.

The STEP survey conducted by the Ministry of Health and the IDF in 2014, one in ten people in Myanmar (10.5 per cent) has diabetics,  one in four persons (26.4 per cent) suffers from hypertension and one in five persons (19.5 per cent), is likely to suffer from diabetes.