Aetiology

Sunday's New York Times has an article discussing the worldwide increase in diabetes:

The number of people around the world suffering from diabetes has skyrocketed in the last two decades, from 30 million to 230 million, claiming millions of lives and severely taxing the ability of health care systemsto deal with the epidemic, according to data released Saturday by the International Diabetes Federation.

While the growing problem of diabetes in the affluent United States has been well documented, the federation's data shows that 7 of the 10 countries with the highest number of diabetics are in the developing world.

(More below)

Numbers-wise, China and India have the most (not surprisingly, due to the sheer size of their respective populations), though other countries have much higher rates of the disease. Like the U.S., the report attributes the increase in diabetes worldwide to diet and lifestyle changes: eating more high-calorie, low-nutrient food and getting less exercise. What's really startling, however, is the difference in prognosis between here in the US and in poorer countries when diagnosed with diabetes.

In some of the world's poorest nations, the disease is a quick death sentence. While Americans can live for many years with the disease, a person in Mozambique who requires injections of insulin can expect to live just a year; in Mali, such people survive about 30 months.

Because of this, the International Diabetes Federation has issued a call to the United Nations to issue a resolution on diabetes. As the NY Times article notes, "If that effort is successful, it would be the first of its kind for a noncommunicable disease."

They end with some staggering numbers:

The federation estimates that within 20 years, the number of diabetics could grow to 350 million. Already, each year some 3 million deaths are tied directly to diabetes, with death rates expected to rise 25 percent over the next decade.