14-Aug-16 China has the highest number of diabetics in the world - 109 mn in 2015 or 11% of the population, a third of the world’s diabetic population. 13% of medical expenditure is directly caused by diabetes. "If we don’t act now," says Bernhard Schwartländer, a WHO representative in China, "diabetes will overwhelm the health system." [image: Reuters / Kim Kyung-Hoon]

22-Jul-16 In 2012, around 500 mn people in China had an uncorrected visual defect. 450 mn of those had myopia. That’s about a third of the population. And, barring policy interventions, around 700 mn people will have myopia by 2020 - half the population. Global Growth Markets estimates about 2.4 mn people had vision correction surgery in China in 2015, mainly LASIK. [image: Reuters / Damir Sagolj]

10-Aug-16 The trend of sports other than cricket becoming more demanding is giving rise to a new breed of medical specialists in India: sports medicine. Hospitals are seeing a spike in sports-related injuries. Dr Raghu Nagaraj from Hosmat Hospital said, "A couple of years ago we used to see only 15 to 18 surgeries a month, but these days we perform close to 45." [image: Bangalore Mirror]

11-Aug-16 Malaysian and Chinese investors should enter into joint ventures to tap the huge potential for rubber medical gloves in China, given the country’s huge population and low usage of such gloves currently, Malaysia's Plantation Industries & Commodities Minister has said. China's current use of rubber medical gloves is three pairs per capita, compared with 25 pairs per capita globally. [image: The Star]

11-Aug-16 Ho Chin Minh City in Vietnam plans to spend more than USD254 mn on three general hospitals in the city’s outlying districts. The construction of the hospitals, which will help reduce 80-90% of patient overload at city or central-level hospitals, is expected to start in 2017. [image: Vietnam Net]