The World Health Organization releases a new report calling on governments to commit to tackling diabetes on the occasion of World Health Day 2016.
The first World Health Organization (WHO) Global report on diabetes was launched on 6 April, ahead of World Health Day 2016. This year’s World Health Day is dedicated to beating diabetes.
FIRST GLOBAL REPORT ON DIABETES
The report shows that the numbers of adults living with diabetes has nearly quadrupled since 1980. There are now 422 million adults with diabetes, or 8.5 per cent of the global population. The vast majority of these individuals have type 2 diabetes, and WHO cites weight gain and obesity as major drivers of this increase.
High rates of morbidity result from diabetes cases: complications from diabetes include heart attack, stroke, blindness, kidney failure and lower limb amputation. In 2012, diabetes alone led to 1.5 million deaths.
A CALL TO ACTION
The risk factors for type 2 diabetes can be modified by changing behaviour and creating supportive environments for healthy lifestyles. The Global report on diabetes calls for government policies that promote improved childhood nutrition and implement urban planning efforts that encourage walking and cycling.
“Even in the poorest settings, governments must ensure that people are able to make these healthy choices and that health systems are able to diagnose and treat people with diabetes,” comments Dr Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General, following the release of the report.
BETTER TREATMENT NEEDED IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
The costs of diabetes management are high and, in many countries, access to interventions is challenging. In fact, diabetes is a ‘tracer condition’, one that acts as an indicator for how successful a health system is. This is due to the need for coordination between various areas of the healthcare system to successfully treat the condition.
“Around one hundred years after the insulin hormone was discovered, the Global report on diabetes shows that essential diabetes medicines and technologies, including insulin, needed for treatment are generally available in only one in three of the world’s poorest countries,” explains Dr Etienne Krug, Director of WHO’s Department for the Management of NCDs, Disability, Violence and Injury Prevention.
COMBATTING DIABETES
In September, International Innovation reported on the work of the World Diabetes Foundation. Dr Anders Dejgaard and Jakob Sloth Yigen Madsen discuss why diabetes is so prevalent.
Providing a personal viewpoint, International Innovation’s Paul Redmond described day-to-day life as a type 1 diabetic in this account for World Diabetes Day 2015.
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