World Diabetes Day on 14th November, Why?
International Diabetes Federation, a global organization, founded in 1950, includes over 190 member–associations from 150 countries, has been celebrating WDD on 14th November since 1991, as a tribute to the main researcher of Insulin, Banting, who was born on this day. Since last year the day has received special importance since United Nations has also joined IDF to celebrate this day.

Theme of the Day
Every year some theme is attached to this day and awareness drive is carried out for whole year. Last year’s theme was to “Diabetes in Children and Adolescents.” In pursuance of this theme, IDF launched a program for children in 2001, titled “Life for Child,” so that no child should die of diabetes. The program intends to provide all essential things to poor children of developing world, including testing instruments, strips and Insulin. So far only 1000 children have been enrolled and IDF aims to double the figure in next year.

From 2009 to 2013 theme shall be “Diabetes Education and Prevention.”

Dr. Uma Shankhdhar, President of U.P. Madhumeh Association, exhorts the needy to contact for free service of IDF through our association, contact number is 9452181101

Magnitude of the Problem

• Currently there are 250 million patients of Diabetes in the world.
• As per broad generalization, for every one diagnosed case of Diabetes one patient remains undetected.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated 135 million diabetes individuals in 1995 and projected that this number would increase to 300 million by the year 2025 (recently revised figure 380 million).
• Excessive rise in number is due to increased urbanization, rise in incidence of obesity, sedentary lifestyles and stress.
• The number of people with diabetes will increase by 42% (from 51 to 72 million) in developed countries and by 170% (from 84 to 228 million) in developing countries.
• Out of 10 nations, most affected with Diabetes, 7 are developing nations and only 3 are developed ones.
• Pre diabetes is a condition, which includes subjects with marginally raised blood glucose, not enough to label them as diabetic. They carry high tendency to develop diabetes in future. Prevalence of pre diabetes is approximately 20% in India.
• Every 10 sec, 2 patients of diabetes are added in the world while one person dies due to Diabetes, thus 6 million new patients are added every year and 3.8 million people die due to diabetes related causes.
• Every day more than 200 children are diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Thus 70,000 type 1 Diabetes patients are added every year at a rate of 3%
• Close to 75,000 children in low–income and lower–middle income countries are living with diabetes in desperate circumstances.
• Diabetes is a pandemic and affects more number of persons than even AIDS
• The stark reality is that many children in developing countries die soon after diagnosis,” said Dr Jean–Claude Mbanya, President–Elect of the International Diabetes Federation.
• Every 30 sec one person undergoes amputation of leg some where in the world, totaling 10 lakh amputations annually.
• Approximately 90% of these amputations start with minor ulceration and 85% are preventable.
• More than 50% cases of renal failure are due to diabetes.
• Diabetes patients carry 2–4 times higher risk of Coronary Heart Disease (which includes Angina and Heart attack) and Stroke.
  In India:
  • There are 42 million patients of Diabetes
  • India heads the list of most affected nations in the world.
  • As per current projections, India shall remain on the top position even in 2025
  • Prevalence of Diabetes in India is around 12%
  • Prevalence of Diabetes in urban population is almost 4 times compared to rural population.
  • As industrialization is rising and rural population is shifting to urban areas, prevalence of diabetes is expected to rise sharply in near future.
  • Diabetes is the 6th commonest cause of blindness in the developing nations while it is the 2nd commonest cause in the developed world.