Crisis Call: Experts Call For Immediate Action As Quarter Of The World’s Diabetics Are From India

A recent paper published in the peer-reviewed journal The Lancet, based on a global study, pointed out that there are 800 million adults living with diabetes across the globe, half of whom are not receiving any treatment. Shockingly, around a quarter i.e., 212 million live in India.

The report revealed that India has the highest number of diabetics in the world. Even more shocking is that the number shown by The Lancet report was 100 million more than the numbers revealed by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)-INDIAB Study done nationwide last year. The recent numbers indicate that the number of people being affected with diabetes is increasing in India and there is a pressing need to address this concern by investing in methods to prevent diabetes, its treatment and prevention of its complications.

The study published in The Lancet was conducted by the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration and the World Health Organisation. The study used data from over 140 million people retrieved from more than 1000 studies in different countries. According to the study, the total number of adults living with either Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes across the globe has surpassed 800 million with India housing a quarter of them and China coming a close second with 148 million.

One of the senior authors of the study, expressing concern over the numbers said that with the epidemic growing at a faster rate across the globe many low- and middle-income countries are seeing the young falling prey to the condition. As treatment is also stagnating in most cases, the risk of living with life-long complications like amputation, heart disease, kidney damage or vision loss also increases in these young adults.

To cumulate the data the study took into consideration the HbA1c values or fasting glucose values whatever is available to conduct the survey which gives more accurate outcomes compared to OGTT readings.

Source: The Hindu