WHO: Number of diabetes patients quadrupled since 1980

Geneva, (IINA) - The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Wednesday that the number of people living with diabetes has nearly quadrupled since 1980 to 422 million adults, most of whom are living in developing countries. A “dramatic rise” mainly driven by overweight and obesity, UN News Center reported.
To mark World Health Day on Thursday, which celebrates WHO’s founding in 1948, the agency is issuing a call for action on diabetes.
In its first-ever Global report on diabetes, WHO highlights the need to step up prevention and treatment of the disease.
Measures needed to tackle the disease include expanding health-promoting environments to reduce diabetes risk factors, like physical inactivity and unhealthy diets, and strengthening national capacities to help people with diabetes receive the treatment and care they need to manage their conditions.
“If we are to make any headway in halting the rise in diabetes, we need to rethink our daily lives”, said Dr. Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General. People must “eat healthily, be physically active, and avoid excessive weight gain”, she advised.
She noted that 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.
WHO pointed out that diabetes is a chronic, progressive non-communicable disease, characterized by elevated levels of blood glucose (blood sugar).
It occurs either when the pancreas does not produce enough of the insulin hormone, which regulates blood sugar, or when the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces.
AG/IINA

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