Other research finds more than a third of USA adults have prediabetes, a high blood sugar condition that may lead to diabetes.
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Compared to Western Europe, diabetes rates rose much more sharply in low- and middle-income countries, such as China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, and Pakistan.
“But change greatly depends on governments doing more, including by implementing global commitments to address diabetes and other (noncommunicable diseases)”.
It said the world is facing an unrelenting march of the disease which now affects almost one in every eleven people.
One in ten Australians die each year from complications from type 2 diabetes, and each day NSW hospitals carry out more than three type 2 diabetes-related amputations. The chronic disease marked by the body’s inability to produce enough insulin to break down sugar in food is known to cause serious complications such as stroke, kidney disease, blindness and heart disease.
In Taiwan, diabetes ranked fifth among the the top 10 causes of deaths in 2014, causing 9,845 deaths in a year – an average of 1.1 death per hour, the HPA said.
One noticeable difference in the unprecedented rise in diabetes cases globally is that majority of the patients are now from poorer nations, reports The Washington Post.
The WHO report indicates numerous findings, among them that the prevalence of diabetes is increasing worldwide, going from 4.7% of the population in 1980 to 8.5% of the population in 2014, bringing not only health impacts but major socioeconomic impacts, particularly in developing countries.
The report linked diabetes and higher-than-optimal blood glucose to 3.7 million deaths each year, 43 percent of which occurred before the age of 70.
“Access to insulin is a matter of life or death for many people with diabetes”.
Concluding his message, Ban called for global efforts to “halt the rise in diabetes and improve the lives of those living with this risky but preventable and treatable disease”. “We must also improve diabetes diagnosis and access to essential medicines such as insulin”.
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Visit Diabetes NSW’s website for information on the warning signs.
