The number of adults with diabetes has quadrupled since 1980 to about 422 million worldwide, mainly due to obesity, according to the first global WHO report on this chronic disease.

Globally, the WHO estimates that 422 million adults suffering from diabetes in 2014, compared with 108 million 1980. This disease affects 8.5% of adults, which is twice more than in 1980 due to increased risk factors, such as overweight and obesity.

In 2012, diabetes killed 1.5 million people in the world while an additional 2.2 million deaths caused by conditions related to it. Thus a total of 3.7 million death resulting from it.

More than half of diabetics in the world live in Southeast Asia and the Pacific region, where eating habits have changed a lot in recent years.
In the Americas region, the percentage has increased from 5% in 1980 to 8.3% in 2014, ie 18 million to 62.

The WHO study denounces the considerable economic losses caused by this disease, both for those affected and for health systems.

Dr. Margaret Chan, director general of the World Health Organization (WHO) Margaret Chan, in the report released on Wednesday said: “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.” She added that: “Even in the poorest settings, governments must ensure that people are able to make these healthy choices and that health systems are able to diagnose and treat people with diabetes.”

“Effectively addressing diabetes does not just happen: it is the result of collective consensus and public investment in interventions that are affordable, cost-effective and based on the best available science,” Dr. Chan said.

Diabetes is a chronic disease that is triggered when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin (a hormone that regulates the level of sugar in the blood), or when the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces.