UN health body sounds alarm on burgeoning diabetes epidemic

Diabetes, a potentially debilitating, painful and fatal disease, is burgeoning worldwide affecting more than 800 million adults and has quadrupled in the past 30 years, reaching new heights as an epidemic.

“We have seen an alarming rise in diabetes over the past three decades, which reflects the increase in obesity, compounded by the impacts of the marketing of unhealthy food, a lack of physical activity and economic hardship,” said World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“To bring the global diabetes epidemic under control, countries must urgently take action. This starts with enacting policies that support healthy diets and physical activity, and, most importantly, health systems that provide prevention, early detection and treatment,” he warned.

Citing data released in the respected health publication The Lancet, a new WHO report raises red flags about the rapidly rising scale of the diabetes epidemic. It calls for much more global cooperation to control both disease rates and widening treatment gaps, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.

Diabetes is a disease that occurs when a person’s blood glucose, also called blood sugar, is too high. The most common types of diabetes are type 1, type 2, and gestational (which occurs only during pregnancy).

The explosion has occurred in both type 1 diabetes, which is often a chronic disease, and type 2 diabetes, which is usually linked to unhealthy lifestyles and foods. When properly managed through self-care and medication, diabetes need not cause health impairment and patients can enjoy long lives.

In the US and other rich countries diabetes drugs like Ozempic have gained popularity in recent years because of newly reported anti-obesity properties. Normally healthy people without diabetes have rushed to buy Ozempic and similar drugs for weight loss, causing supply shortages and higher prices. This behavior is shutting out diabetes patients in poorer countries from necessary treatment.

In response, WHO launched a new international network last week called “the global monitoring framework on diabetes” to help national health authorities to better measure and evaluate diabetes prevalence for prevention and care.

It includes key indicators, such glycemic (blood glucose) control, hypertension and access to essential medicines, to improve targeted anti-diabetes interventions and build efficient health care policies.

One result would be a standardized approach to understand the spread of diabetes within each country and put necessary resources in place with international help to significantly improve diabetes prevention and care.

WHO established five global diabetes coverage targets in 2022 to be achieved by 2030, including measures to ensure that 80% of people with diabetes achieve good glycemic control.

The study reports that the largest increase in diabetes prevalence in adults was in poorer countries between 1990 and 2022 with diabetes rates soaring while treatment access remains persistently low.

In 2022, almost 450 million adults aged 30 and older – about 59% of all adults with diabetes – remained untreated, marking a 3.5-fold increase in untreated people since 1990. Ninety per cent of these untreated adults are living in low- and middle-income countries and fewer than 4 in 10 adults with diabetes are taking glucose-lowering medication for their diabetes.

A separate global survey conducted by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) reports that 77% of people living with diabetes have experienced anxiety, depression, or another mental health condition because of their diabetes. The fear of developing complications was the most common factor impacting mental well-being.

The fear is reasonable. Untreated diabetes can cause major complications including retina damage to the eyes, foot problems and amputations, heart attacks and strokes, kidney malfunctions and failure, nerve damage affecting the limbs and brain, gum disease and mouth problems, potential cancers, skin conditions, hearing impairment and Alzheimer’s disease.

The IDF survey was conducted across seven countries in six regions: Brazil, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, South Africa, Spain and USA.

America’s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases estimates that 38.4 million Americans of all ages or 11.6% of the population had diabetes in 2021. About 38.1 million were adults aged 18 years or older while 8.7 million adults had diabetes but were undiagnosed.