U.N. launches “Unite for Diabetes” campaign
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The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) launched its “Unite for Diabetes” campaign this week here at the Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association, urging global support of the United Nations Resolution on diabetes.
The U.N.‘s resolution aims to raise awareness of the global burden of diabetes, and officials are calling for worldwide governmental support of this effort.
New figures announced by the International Diabetes Federation show that diabetes affects 230 million people, approximately 6 percent of the world’s adult population. Seven of the ten countries with the highest prevalence are in the developing world.
“Diabetes is emerging fast as one of the biggest health catastrophes the world has ever seen,” International Diabetes Federation president-elect Dr. Martin Silink said in a release issued at the meeting. Type 1 diabetes is increasing by 3 percent a year. Meanwhile, 80 percent of cases of type 2 diabetes are preventable through dietary and lifestyle changes, he said.
Mortality from diabetes is as high as that from HIV/AIDS, but awareness of the problem is “extraordinarily” lacking, Silink told conference attendees. Diabetes mortality is expected to rise 25 percent over the next decade.
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has said: “It is my aspiration that health will finally be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but a human right to be fought for.”
The U.N. hopes to secure its Resolution by World Diabetes Day on November 14, 2007.
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