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Four times as many people in the world living with diabetes today than in 1980

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  • Four times as many people in the world living with diabetes today than in 1980

    The rate of diabetes has more than doubled in Africa and no one is ready for it


    April 9, 2016

    There are now four times as many people in the world living with diabetes today than in 1980 and poor diet and a lack of exercise are largely blamed, according to a report by the World Health Organization. In Africa, the prevalence of diabetes has more than doubled in that time, which may be due to better personal incomes versus poor public spending.


    While the rate of diabetes remains comparatively low in Africa, the number of people living with diabetes has jumped from 4 million in 1980, to 25 million in 2014. For one of the world’s youngest regions, that number is worrying for a number of reasons.


    Since diabetes is a lifestyle disease, an increase in the disease could be a symptom of growing prosperity, as people are able to afford more processed foods. It’s also a sign of a more sedentary lifestyle as more people spend their working days sitting down.


    However, Africa’s relative prosperity has not yet translated to more sound public healthcare systems. In developing countries, diabetes is an added burden to states still dealing with historical sociopolitical inequalities and weak economies. Plus, developing countries have other illnesses—biological and social—whose immediate effects have seemed more pressing than diabetes.


    “Most of these countries are also burdened by communicable diseases such as HIV, tuberculosis, malaria and diarrheal diseases. Political unrest, poverty and poor leadership with substandard policy regulation and corruption, illiteracy and low education standards are rampant,” said endocrinologist Sundeep Ruder in The Conversation.


    “Governments need to guide policy to create environments that are conducive to attaining health goals. Trade measures and agricultural policies need attention. The marketing of foods high in sugar, fats and salt—especially to children—requires attention.”


    Some governments have tried this. In Botswana, a high middle-income country known for its political stability and large diamonds, rapid urbanization contributed to national rate of diabetes becoming nearly twice as high as the average rate in Africa in 2012, according to local media reports. In South Africa at least 58 people a day died of diabetes in 2012, according to Statistics South Africa. In both countries, national health campaigns have urged earlier screening, and a better lifestyle – with South Africa’s health minister starting with the menu in parliament.


    But for most countries, these advertising campaigns are already too costly, and treating the existing cases even more so. Treatments like medical insulin need to be made available and screening and detection must be improved. Ruder believes that the activism around treatment for HIV/Aids should be adapted to diabetes campaigning.
    There are now four times as many people in the world living with diabetes today than in 1980 and poor diet and a lack of exercise are largely blamed, according to a report by the World Health Organization. In Africa, the prevalence of diabetes has more than doubled in that time, which may be due...
    ?Addressing chronic disease is an issue of human rights ? that must be our call to arms"
    Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief The Lancet

    ~~~~ Twitter:@GertvanderHoek ~~~ GertvanderHoek@gmail.com ~~~

  • #2
    WHO: Diabetes rises fourfold over last quarter-century
    • Apr 8, 2016
    • GENEVA — Excessive weight, obesity, aging and population growth drove a nearly four-fold increase in worldwide cases of diabetes over the last quarter-century, affecting 422 million people in 2014, the World Health Organization reported Wednesday.
    • In a new report on diabetes, the U.N. health agency called for stepped-up measures to reduce risk factors for diabetes and improve treatment and care that has ballooned in recent years alongside an increase in obesity rates. WHO said 8.5 percent of the world population had diabetes two years ago, up from 108 million, or 4.7 percent, in 1980.
    • On Wednesday, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said:
    • “We need to rethink our daily lives: to eat healthily, be physically active and avoid excessive weight gain.”
    • The Geneva-based agency blamed growing consumption of food and beverages high in sugar. Diabetes increased around the world but affects lower- and middle-income people more often than wealthier populations. The rates rose most in Africa, the Middle East and Asia — with the “Eastern Mediterranean” region more than doubling its prevalence to 13.7 percent of the population, the only world region with a double-digit percentage.
    • Diabetes is a chronic condition in which the body either does not make enough insulin to break down the sugar in foods or uses insulin inefficiently. It can cause early death or serious complications like blindness, stroke, kidney disease or heart disease.

      In the “Global Report on Diabetes” released Wednesday, WHO says diabetes caused 1.5 million deaths in 2012, and another 2.2 million deaths were caused by higher-than-optimal blood glucose levels, by increasing the risks of cardiovascular and other diseases.
    • The report does not distinguish between Type 1 diabetes, which involves deficient insulin production in the body and requires daily insulin injections for survival, and Type 2, in which the body uses insulin ineffectively and is more often associated with obesity and relatively sedentary lifestyles.
    • The increase has coincided with growing rates of obesity: In Western countries like the U.S and Britain, two-thirds of people are now overweight or obese. The WHO report stopped short of any drastic new recommendations, suggesting for example that countries build political support and allocate resources for diabetes prevention, and “prioritize actions to prevent people becoming overweight and obese.”
    • The report said WHO is updating its guidelines on fat and carbohydrate intake, but said adults can reduce their risk of type 2 diabetes through regular, adequate physical activity and “healthy diets that include sufficient consumption of dietary fiber, and replacing saturated fatty acids with polyunsaturated fatty acids.”
    GENEVA — Excessive weight, obesity, aging and population growth drove a nearly four-fold increase in worldwide cases of diabetes over the last quarter-century, affecting 422 million people in 2014, the
    ?Addressing chronic disease is an issue of human rights ? that must be our call to arms"
    Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief The Lancet

    ~~~~ Twitter:@GertvanderHoek ~~~ GertvanderHoek@gmail.com ~~~

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