Diabetes devastating the indigenous community
As obesity levels continue to rise, diabetes is a problem that more and more of us are having to face. But despite the fact that the disease’s effects can be lethal, it’s been largely ignored by the government. And according to the International Diabetes Institute’s Professor Paul Zimmet, the people most at risk are Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population. To combat this, the International Diabetes Institute recently called a forum to approve a series of urgent measures to help halt the epidemic. One of the specialists at the forum is Melbourne University’s Kerin O’Dea . We’ll be hearing from her later. First though, Max Lavergne spoke to Stephen Colagiuri, from the University of New South Wales’ Department of Medicine and asked him just how bad the diabetes situation in indigenous communities is.