230 Million People Worldwide Suffered from
Diabetes
Warning that the diabetes epidemic already affects some 230 million
people worldwide, health leaders on Wednesday called for government
programmers and United Nations support to fight the often hidden
disease. To do nothing is not an option, said Dr. Martin Silink,
president of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), at a
conference here organized by the IDF and the Danish laboratory Novo
Nordisk, the No 1 maker of a diabetes treatment.
Some 350 million people could be affected by the disease in the next
20 years if nothing is done to curb a possible global health
catastrophe according to Silink, a professor at the diabetes
institute at Australia's Sydney University. Diabetes is known as a
hidden disease as world governments tackle more obvious health
crises such as SARS, tuberculosis and AIDS.
Yet someone around the world dies of diabetes every 10 seconds, and
it is the fourth leading cause of death by disease, according to the
IDF. Diabetes is a chronic condition in which the body does not
produce enough of the hormone insulin, or cannot make use of the
insulin it does produce. Lack of insulin causes wild fluctuations of
glucose in the blood.
The disease is linked to blindness, heart disease, amputations and
kidney failure. It consists of type one diabetes, which is linked to
a genetic predisposition, and the more common type two diabetes, the
result mainly of obesity, an unhealthy diet and inactivity.
World governments have to accept the "social responsibility" of
combating the disease, which is showing up in more children, Silink
said.
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