Diabetes affects nearly one in every 11 people worldwide, the World Health Organisation said in its latest report released on Wednesday. The WHO added that the number of diabetics in the world had quadrupled from 108 million in 1980 to 422 million in 2014. The disease causes 3.7 million deaths globally every year – making it the eighth biggest killer in the world – and WHO officials said the figure will continue to climb unless “drastic action” is taken, BBC reported.
The report further noted two thirds of low-income countries were unable to provide patients with blood sugar monitors or drugs such as insulin or metformin. While the report clubs both type 1 and type 2 diabetes in its findings, the type 2 form of the disease – linked to poor lifestyle – has seen a more significant increase in the number of cases, it said.
Dr Etienne Krug, a WHO official leading efforts against diabetes, said that to help people control their blood sugar level, societies need to act as a whole. He suggested that governments should regulate fat and sugar content of foods to ensure the availability of healthy options, and that the food industry should stop marketing unhealthy foods to young people.
An earlier report released by the United Nations agency said that the number of diabetics in India had doubled to 63 million in 2013 from 32 million in 2000. The figure is projected to increase to 101.2 million in the next 15 years, the report added. WHO has adopted diabetes as its theme for World Health Day, which falls on April 7.
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