Diabetes Kills Every Six Seconds

According to the International Diabetes Federation, diabetes kills one person every six seconds and affects 382 million people worldwide. In 2009 there were 285 million sufferers.
Those numbers are staggering, especially since the numbers continue to rise every year. The number of diabetes cases has risen 4.4 percent over the past two years and constitutes 5 percent of the world's total population.
The numbers will continue to worsen with poor diet, sedentary lifestyle, increases in obesity, and longer lifespans add to the epidemic. By 2035 the number of people affected will increase 55 percent to 592 million people worldwide.
"We haven't seen any kind of stabilizing, any kind of reversal," said Leonor Guariguata, a project coordinator and epidemiologist for IDF's Diabetes Atlas, which is published every two years. "Diabetes continues to be a very big problem and is increasing beyond previous projections."
The disease, as we've blogged about previously, is becoming a huge financial burden on governments, as $548 billion was spent in global health care last year. Health officials from 200 countries in May adopted nine targets, such as reducing average salt consumption by 30 percent by 2025 in an effort to curb cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. Officials also called for curbs on marketing unhealthy foot to children.
In addition to killing one person every six seconds, the total loss each year is 5.1 million people. There is an average of 10 million new cases diagnosed every year. The majority of those cases are in the 40-59 age group. As well, each year there are more than 1 million amputations, 500,000 kidney failures, and 1.5 million cases of blindness, according to Novo Nordisk.
Diabetes is spreading faster than the population is growing each year, which increased 2.2 percent in two years. There are 7 billion people worldwide.
"More younger adults are developing diabetes," Guariguata commented. "That's telling us that the pace of the epidemic is faster than the pace of change of demographics alone."
And these numbers are likely low and underestimated.
"These are probably substantial underestimates of what the real problem is," said Paul Zimmet, honorary president of IDF and director emeritus of the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute in Melbourne. "You can only work on the information that's available to work on."
Four out of five people with diabetes live in developed countries where there aren't big studies available.
Reference: Bloomberg
If you are a diabetic and do not currently see a podiatrist, call our Glastonbury or Middletown office to make an appointment.
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Connecticut Foot Care Centers
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