Kota Kinabalu: Sabah recorded lower prevalence rates for several non-communicable diseases (NCDs) compared with the national average, but the number of active patients that the State’s public healthcare system needs to manage remains high.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said based on the latest National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) 2023, the prevalence of diabetes among adults in Sabah stood at 8.8 per cent, the lowest in Malaysia compared with the national average of 15.6 per cent.
He said the hypertension rate in Sabah was 25.5 per cent, ranking 12th nationally compared with the national average of 29.2 per cent, while the State’s obesity rate stood at 19.5 per cent, also below the national average.
“I commend and congratulate the people and the entire public healthcare machinery in Sabah for this achievement.
“However, these lower percentages must not lull us into complacency. In absolute numbers, the healthcare machinery in Sabah still has to shoulder a very heavy burden,” he said.
He said Sabah was currently managing 42,113 active diabetes cases and 86,114 active hypertension cases throughout the State.
Dr Dzulkefly said this was in addition to the burden of infectious diseases, particularly tuberculosis (TB), which recorded 4,029 new cases and 131 deaths in Sabah as of mid-August.
He said treating tens of thousands of NCD patients in Sabah’s rural areas, across rivers, mountains and logging roads, was far more challenging than managing patients in urban areas.
“This is the reality that requires us to act beyond the norm,” he said.
At the national level, he said NCDs claimed more than 94,000 Malaysian lives every year, compared with 37,000 deaths caused by the Covid-19 pandemic over a two-year period.
He said the situation demonstrated the need for the country’s healthcare system to shift its focus from a sick-care approach to healthcare, by ensuring people remained healthy before they fell ill.
Dr Dzulkefly said the Health Ministry (MoH) was now building a future-proof, future-focused and future-ready healthcare system through comprehensive structural reforms.
