[Ip-health] Concern Grows Over Increase in Diabetes Around World

[James Love]

Note that US and EC trade negotiators fought hard to *exclude*
diabetes from the scope of diseases to be addressed in the Doha
Declaration.  Jamie

* "Diabetes is one of the biggest health catastrophes the world has
ever seen," said Dr. Martin Silink, the president-elect of the
International Diabetes Federation.

* While the growing problem of diabetes in the affluent United States
has been well documented, the federation's data shows that 7 of the
10 countries with the highest number of diabetics are in the
developing world.

* China now has the largest number of diabetics over age 20, around
39 million people or about 2.7 percent of the adult population,
according to the federation. The groups says India has the second
largest number of cases with an estimated 30 million people, or about
6 percent of the adult population.

* In some of the world's poorest nations, the disease is a quick
death sentence. While Americans can live for many years with the
disease, a person in Mozambique who requires injections of insulin
can expect to live just a year; in Mali, such people survive about 30
months.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/11/health/11diabetes.html

The New York Times

June 11, 2006
Concern Grows Over Increase in Diabetes Around World
By MARC SANTORA

WASHINGTON, June 10 =97  The number of people around the world
suffering from diabetes has skyrocketed in the last two decades, from
30 million to 230 million, claiming millions of lives and severely
taxing the ability of health care systemsto deal with the epidemic,
according to data released Saturday by the International Diabetes
Federation.

While the growing problem of diabetes in the affluent United States
has been well documented, the federation's data shows that 7 of the
10 countries with the highest number of diabetics are in the
developing world.

China now has the largest number of diabetics over age 20, around 39
million people or about 2.7 percent of the adult population,
according to the federation. The groups says India has the second
largest number of cases with an estimated 30 million people, or about
6 percent of the adult population.

Other countries have higher rates of diabetes than either China or
India, but the federation's experts say rising diabetes rates in the
large, rapidly industrializing nations are especially worrisome
because of the size of their populations. In some countries in the
Caribbean the Middle East, the percentage of diabetic people ranged
from 12 to 20 percent; the highest rate was posted in Nauru, an
island in the South Pacific.

In some of the world's poorest nations, the disease is a quick death
sentence. While Americans can live for many years with the disease, a
person in Mozambique who requires injections of insulin can expect to
live just a year; in Mali, such people survive about 30 months.

There are many factors driving the growth in diabetes worldwide, but
most experts agree that changes in lifestyle and diet are the chief
culprits, in addition to genetic predisposition. As developing
countries rapidly industrialize, people tend to do work involving
less physical activity. At the same time, the availability of food
that is cheap but high in calories becomes more common.

The combination causes weight gain, which leads to greater risk of
developing Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease.

The other form, Type 1, is responsible for only 5 percent to 10
percent of cases, and is not associated with behavior, but rather is
believed to stem almost entirely from genetic factors. In either
form, diabetes is characterized by high blood sugar levels that
result from the body's inability to make or use insulin, which can
lead to a host of complications that include kidney failure and
blindness.

"Diabetes is one of the biggest health catastrophes the world has
ever seen," said Dr. Martin Silink, the president-elect of the
International Diabetes Federation.

"The diabetes epidemic will overwhelm health care resources
everywhere if governments do not wake up now and take action."

To help stem the tide of the disease, the International Diabetes
Federation is seeking a United Nations resolution to recognize the
seriousness of the problem. If that effort is successful, it would be
the first of its kind for a noncommunicable disease.

There is little debate among experts that the epidemic is getting
worse. Measuring the rate of growth, though, is more problematic. The
latest estimates are well above figures published in 2003, when the
federation estimated that 194 million people had diabetes. Still,
part of the increase is likely due to better detection efforts.

While Type 2 was traditionally thought of as affecting older people,
in recent years people have been found to have the disease at younger
and younger ages.

The data was released at the American Diabetes Association's 66th
Scientific Sessions. The federation studied only people over 20 years
old.

"The largest number of people affected by diabetes are now between
the ages of 40 and 59," said Delice Gan, an editor at The Diabetes
Atlas, which will publish the new figures.

"The trend has been that the ages have been dropping so that people
are getting sick in the prime of their life, when they are their most
productive."

The federation estimates that within 20 years, the number of
diabetics could grow to 350 million. Already, each year some 3
million deaths are tied directly to diabetes, with death rates
expected to rise 25 percent over the next decade.

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James Love, CPTech / www.cptech.org / mailto:james.love@cptech.org /
tel. +1.202.332.2670 / mobile +1.202.361.3040

"If everyone thinks the same: No one thinks."  Bill Walton