World Faces a ‘Devastating’ Diabetes Epidemic-WHO

The world faces a devastating diabetes epidemic, with the annual death toll already exceeding the three million killed by AIDS and set to rise, the World Health Organization warned Wednesday.

The world faces a devastating diabetes epidemic, with the annual death toll already exceeding the three million killed by AIDS and set to rise, the World Health Organization warned Wednesday. Issuing a cry of alarm about the disease, the WHO and the International Diabetes Foundation said the number of sufferers worldwide would more than double to 366 million by 2030, from some 171 million at present. Although often thought a rich country risk, it is in poorer countries that diabetes is growing fastest, with cases seen rising 150 percent over the next 25 years. In India, for example, the number would leap from 32 million to 80 million. Furthermore, while in rich states diabetes affects mainly older people, in poorer countries incidence is surging among those still economically active, the two organizations said. “The number is increasing dramatically and has the potential to overwhelm countries’ health systems,” WHO director for chronic disease Dr Robert Beaglehole told a news conference. Diabetes is often linked to obesity, which the WHO has already warned is rising in developing as well as developed countries. WHO and the Foundation said they were launching a campaign to raise awareness, because, unlike some other health threats, diabetes could be prevented by improved eating and exercise habits. “It is determined environmentally and therefore it can be reversed,” Beaglehole said. LARGELY UNRECOGNIZED Some 3.2 million people died in 2000, the latest year for which figures were available, of ailments brought on by diabetes such as cardiovascular disease and kidney failure. This compares with three million deaths from AIDS. “The burden of premature death from diabetes is similar to that of HIV/AIDS, yet the problem is largely unrecognized,” the two organizations said in a statement. Although it was not possible to predict accurately the future death rate, WHO officials said it would probably mirror the increase in overall cases. The per capita death toll was highest in the Middle East and parts of the Pacific, with more than one in four deaths in the 35-64 age range attributed to diabetes. There is some evidence ethnicity plays a role, with Asians and Africans seemingly more prone to the illness, which can also cause blindness and poor circulation leading in some cases to amputation of limbs. Type 1 diabetes, which mainly affects children, appears genetically determined and has no cure. But most sufferers have type 2, which some 58 percent of the time is triggered by being overweight, combined with a lack of exercise, the WHO and the Foundation said.