Half of diabetics unaware of condition, says report

MANILA, Philippines - Around 371 million people around the world are suffering from diabetes but what is alarming is that half of them are not even aware of their condition, according to a report of the International Diabetes Foundation (IDF).

Of the 371 million cases, IDF said 187 million “are still to be diagnosed.”

“The high number of undiagnosed diabetes cases means that millions of people are at risk of costly and debilitating diabetes complications, including nerve and kidney disease,” the IDF said, adding that a rising trend in cases had been observed.

Based on the IDF Diabetes Atlas in 2011, there were 366 million diabetic people worldwide. Death toll then was placed at four million.

By the end of this year, 4.8 million people would have died from diabetes-related complications and half of these deaths would be among people under the age of 60, the IDF said.

“As millions of undiagnosed people develop diabetes complications, we can expect to see the mortality rate climb,” said IDF president Jean Claude Mbanya.

During the World Diabetes Day last Nov. 14, the foundation called on countries to scale up efforts to raise awareness and control the disease.

The IDF Diabetes Atlas also showed that this year, $471 billion have already been spent on diabetes while $465 billion was spent in 2011.

Four out of five people with diabetes live in low and middle-income countries. One out of three adults with diabetes, on the other hand, are from the Western Pacific while one in four diabetes deaths occurs in Southeast Asia.

According to IDF chief executive office Ann Keeling, millions of people are dying from diabetes in their most productive years.

“The stability of societies is threatened and huge economic and political burdens are imposed on countries and communities. However, this disease remains marginalized on the global health and development agenda and vastly under-resourced,” Keeling said. 

In its website, IDF describes diabetes as a “chronic disease that arises when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin, or when the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces.”

“Insulin is a hormone made by the pancreas that enables cells to take in glucose from the blood and use it for energy. Failure to produce insulin, or of insulin to act properly, or both, leads to raised glucose (sugar) levels in the blood (hyperglycaemia). This is associated with long-term damage to the body and failure of various organs and tissues,” the IDF said.

The warning signs of diabetes are frequent urination, excessive thirst, increased hunger, weight loss, tiredness, lack of interest and concentration, vomiting and stomach pain that are often mistaken as flu, tingling sensation or numbness in the hands or feet, blurred vision, frequent infections, and slow-healing wounds.

There are two types of diabetes, namely type 1 and type 2, the IDF said.

“The risk factors for type 1 diabetes are still being researched. However, having a family member with type 1 diabetes increases the risks for developing the condition, as do the presence of some genetic factors,” the IDF said.

The agency said environmental factors, increased height and weight development, increased maternal age at delivery, and exposure to some viral infections have also been associated with the risk of developing type 1 diabetes.

The risk factors linked to type 2 diabetes include obesity, diet and physical inactivity, increasing age, insulin resistance, family history of diabetes, and ethnicity.