Dramatic increase in diabetes unveiled

The IDF Diabetes Atlas, released by the International Diabetes Federation on World Diabetes Day (14 Nov), confirms that diabetes is on the increase in the human population.

This sixth edition of the atlas estimates that the number of people living with diabetes will surge from 382 million to 592 million people by 2035 - that’s one in 10 of the world’s population.

And the trend is for younger and younger people to develop the condition with the majority of this 592 million people predicted to be aged under 60.

Regionally, the Western Pacific, which includes Australia, has 138 million people with diabetes, the highest number of people with the disease in the world. Diabetes is predicted to become the leading burden of disease in Australia by 2017.

By the end of 2013, 5.1 million people globally will have died from complications due to the disease - that’s one person every six seconds.

According to Professor Paul Zimmet, Director Emeritus at the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, diabetes is the fastest growing non-communicable disease in Australia and all types of diabetes are increasing in prevalence.

The World Diabetes Congress is coming up in Melbourne on 2-6 December.