15.
Diabetes
Scourge of A Sweet Death
Diabetes mellitus, often simply referred to as diabetes, is a group of metabolic diseases in which a person has high blood sugar, either because the body does not produce enough insulin, or because cells do not respond to the insulin that is produced. This high blood sugar produces the classical symptoms of polyuria (frequent urination), polydipsia (increased thirst) and polyphagia (increased hunger).
There are three main types of diabetes:
Type 1 diabetes: results from the body’s failure to produce insulin, and presently requires the person to inject insulin.
Type 2 diabetes: results from insulin resistance, a condition in which cells fail to use insulin properly, sometimes combined with an absolute insulin deficiency.
Gestational diabetes: is when pregnant women, who have never had diabetes before, have a high blood glucose level during pregnancy. It may precede development of type 2 diabetes.
There are three main types of diabetes:
Type 1 diabetes: results from the body’s failure to produce insulin, and presently requires the person to inject insulin.
Type 2 diabetes: results from insulin resistance, a condition in which cells fail to use insulin properly, sometimes combined with an absolute insulin deficiency.
Gestational diabetes: is when pregnant women, who have never had diabetes before, have a high blood glucose level during pregnancy. It may precede development of type 2 diabetes.
Global Diabetes Epidemic Balloons To 350 Million
The number of adults with diabetes worldwide has more than doubled since 1980 to 347 million, a far larger number than previously thought.
Around 3.8 million deaths every year are attributable to complications of diabetes; six deaths every minute. This is roughly the same number as those dying from HIV/AIDS.
The top 10 countries, in numbers of sufferers, are India, China, USA, Indonesia, Japan, Pakistan, Russia, Brazil Italy and Bangladesh.
Overall, direct health care costs of diabetes range from 2.5% to 15% of annual health care budgets, depending on local diabetes prevalence and the sophistication of the treatment available.
The costs of lost production may be as much as five times the direct health care cost, according to estimates derived from 25 Latin American countries.
In a study published in the Lancet journal, it was found that of the 347 million people with diabetes, 138 million live in China and India and another 36 million in the United States and Russia.
The most common type of diabetes, Type 2, is strongly associated with obesity and a diet of processed foods.
People with diabetes have inadequate blood sugar control, which can lead to serious complications like heart disease and stroke, damage to the kidneys or nerves, and to blindness.
Experts say high blood glucose and diabetes cause around 3 million deaths globally each year, a number that will continue to rise as the number of people affected increases.
As a result, diabetes is a booming market for drugmakers like Novo Nordisk, Sanofi, Eli Lilly, Merck and Takeda.
Dozens of diabetes treatments, both pills and injections, are on the market. Global sales of the medicines totaled $35 billion last year and could rise to as much as $48 billion by 2015, according to drug research firm IMS Health.
For this Lancet study, the largest of its kind for diabetes, researchers analyzed fasting plasma glucose (FPG) data from 2.7 million participants aged 25 and over across the world, and then used advanced statistical methods to estimate prevalence.
They found that between 1980 and 2008, the number of adults with the disease rose from 153 million to 347 million.
The proportion of adults with diabetes rose to 9.8 percent of men and 9.2 percent of women in 2008, compared with 8.3 percent of men and 7.5 percent of women in 1980.
Diabetes has taken off most dramatically in Pacific Island nations, which now have the highest diabetes levels in the world, the study found. In the Marshall Islands, a third of all women and a quarter of all men have diabetes.
Among wealthy countries, the rise in diabetes was highest in North America and relatively small in Western Europe. Diabetes and glucose levels were highest in United States, Greenland, Malta, New Zealand and Spain, and lowest in the Netherlands, Austria and France.
Around 3.8 million deaths every year are attributable to complications of diabetes; six deaths every minute. This is roughly the same number as those dying from HIV/AIDS.
The top 10 countries, in numbers of sufferers, are India, China, USA, Indonesia, Japan, Pakistan, Russia, Brazil Italy and Bangladesh.
Overall, direct health care costs of diabetes range from 2.5% to 15% of annual health care budgets, depending on local diabetes prevalence and the sophistication of the treatment available.
The costs of lost production may be as much as five times the direct health care cost, according to estimates derived from 25 Latin American countries.
In a study published in the Lancet journal, it was found that of the 347 million people with diabetes, 138 million live in China and India and another 36 million in the United States and Russia.
The most common type of diabetes, Type 2, is strongly associated with obesity and a diet of processed foods.
People with diabetes have inadequate blood sugar control, which can lead to serious complications like heart disease and stroke, damage to the kidneys or nerves, and to blindness.
Experts say high blood glucose and diabetes cause around 3 million deaths globally each year, a number that will continue to rise as the number of people affected increases.
As a result, diabetes is a booming market for drugmakers like Novo Nordisk, Sanofi, Eli Lilly, Merck and Takeda.
Dozens of diabetes treatments, both pills and injections, are on the market. Global sales of the medicines totaled $35 billion last year and could rise to as much as $48 billion by 2015, according to drug research firm IMS Health.
For this Lancet study, the largest of its kind for diabetes, researchers analyzed fasting plasma glucose (FPG) data from 2.7 million participants aged 25 and over across the world, and then used advanced statistical methods to estimate prevalence.
They found that between 1980 and 2008, the number of adults with the disease rose from 153 million to 347 million.
The proportion of adults with diabetes rose to 9.8 percent of men and 9.2 percent of women in 2008, compared with 8.3 percent of men and 7.5 percent of women in 1980.
Diabetes has taken off most dramatically in Pacific Island nations, which now have the highest diabetes levels in the world, the study found. In the Marshall Islands, a third of all women and a quarter of all men have diabetes.
Among wealthy countries, the rise in diabetes was highest in North America and relatively small in Western Europe. Diabetes and glucose levels were highest in United States, Greenland, Malta, New Zealand and Spain, and lowest in the Netherlands, Austria and France.
India - A Case Study
Not long ago, public health officials considered this a disease of relatively minor importance. That has changed. A diabetes epidemic typically follows an obesity epidemic with a lag of about 10 years. India, with its population of 1.1 billion, has upwards of 100 million diabetics and that figure is growing every year. China is in similar situation. An extreme case is the Pacific island of Nauru, where half a century ago diabetes was unknown. Now 40 per cent of adults have it.
Diabetes is very much a disease of the cities. It is rife in India’s boomtown like Hyderabad. Make the slow, laborious drive out of the clogged-up city into the neighbouring villages, and the much thinner rural population is less likely to be diabetic. The problem is only partly the traditional Hyderabad biryani dish, made with meat, rice and lots of oil or ghee. Rich Indians now get a far larger proportion of their energy from fat than poor Indians do. A national survey found that by 2000, 12 per cent of urban Indians over the age of 20 already had diabetes.
It’s not just that people in poor countries are adopting unhealthy habits. Once ill, they are much less likely than those in rich countries to see a doctor and receive treatment. A survey in Egypt published in 2000, for instance, showed that one in three people with very severe hypertension didn’t even know they had the condition. Even if they knew, they struggled to find doctors. In Uganda, there is only one doctor of any kind for every 20,000 people, compared with one for 500 in the UK.
Diabetes is very much a disease of the cities. It is rife in India’s boomtown like Hyderabad. Make the slow, laborious drive out of the clogged-up city into the neighbouring villages, and the much thinner rural population is less likely to be diabetic. The problem is only partly the traditional Hyderabad biryani dish, made with meat, rice and lots of oil or ghee. Rich Indians now get a far larger proportion of their energy from fat than poor Indians do. A national survey found that by 2000, 12 per cent of urban Indians over the age of 20 already had diabetes.
It’s not just that people in poor countries are adopting unhealthy habits. Once ill, they are much less likely than those in rich countries to see a doctor and receive treatment. A survey in Egypt published in 2000, for instance, showed that one in three people with very severe hypertension didn’t even know they had the condition. Even if they knew, they struggled to find doctors. In Uganda, there is only one doctor of any kind for every 20,000 people, compared with one for 500 in the UK.
Diabetes Treatment - Runaway Budgets
India spent $32bn on diabetes care in 2010.
A study on the financial burden of diabetes on the common man in the country has found that 60% of diabetics - irrespective of their socio-economic status - pay for the expenditure incurred for treatment and management of the disease from their personal savings.
The study, “The Socio-economics of diabetes from a Developing Country” conducted by the Diabetes Research Centre in Chennai, says the next common method of payment was by selling, mortgaging immovable assets or taking loans with interest rates as high as 39%.
The situation is especially grim for those patients whose monthly income is Rs.10,000 or less. Around 60% of them borrow, mortgage or sell their property just to keep their blood sugar level under control. On an average, a diabetic in India spends Rs 25,931 annually on diagnosis and treatment of the ailment, and its attendant complications.
World Diabetes Day is on 14 November and all over the planet events are taking place to draw attention to this crisis.
Already it kills more people than HIV/Aids and the prognosis is grim. Diabetes causes myriad medical complications: heart disease, blindness, kidney failure, loss of limbs and death.
A study on the financial burden of diabetes on the common man in the country has found that 60% of diabetics - irrespective of their socio-economic status - pay for the expenditure incurred for treatment and management of the disease from their personal savings.
The study, “The Socio-economics of diabetes from a Developing Country” conducted by the Diabetes Research Centre in Chennai, says the next common method of payment was by selling, mortgaging immovable assets or taking loans with interest rates as high as 39%.
The situation is especially grim for those patients whose monthly income is Rs.10,000 or less. Around 60% of them borrow, mortgage or sell their property just to keep their blood sugar level under control. On an average, a diabetic in India spends Rs 25,931 annually on diagnosis and treatment of the ailment, and its attendant complications.
World Diabetes Day is on 14 November and all over the planet events are taking place to draw attention to this crisis.
Already it kills more people than HIV/Aids and the prognosis is grim. Diabetes causes myriad medical complications: heart disease, blindness, kidney failure, loss of limbs and death.