The WHO released the special report for diabetes in time for the celebration of World Health Day 2016, where it aims to raise awareness in preventing and providing effective treatment for the disease that affects millions of people worldwide.
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“If we are to make any headway in halting the rise in diabetes, we need to rethink our daily lives: to eat healthily, be physically active, and avoid excessive weight gain”, says Dr Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General.
World Health Organization said diabetes is a serious disease that occurs when the pancreas does not produce enough of the hormone insulin to regulate blood sugar or when the body can not use the insulin it produces.
The report combined incidences of type 1 and type 2 diabetes but the surge in cases is due to type 2, which is closely linked to obesity and poor lifestyle. People with type 2 diabetes are typically overweight and sedentary, two conditions that raise a person’s insulin needs.
Complications from diabetes can lead to heart attacks, strokes, blindness, kidney failure and lower limb amputations.
In a new report on diabetes, the United Nations 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.
Changes Worldwide rates of diabetes have almost quadrupled since 1980, and an estimated 3.7 million deaths were directly attributed to diabetes in 2012.
Last year, governments adopted the Sustainable Development Goals, which include the target of reducing premature mortality from non-communicable diseases, which include diabetes, by one-third.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has come up with its first global report on diabetes this year in which it has highlighted the scale of the issue and has suggested ways of reversing current trends. “People in low- and middle-income countries are disproportionately affected, but wherever we find poverty we also find disease and premature deaths”.
“Type 2 diabetes is the fastest growing chronic disease in Australia – it kills more of us than breast, prostate and brain cancer combined in any one year”, he said.
World Health Day, and World Diabetes Day specifically, encourage the promotion of a healthy diet, physical activity, and increased advocacy for access to diagnosis and affordable treatment.
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It’s the region with the biggest number of cases of diabetes-131-million according to the latest estimates.
