Diabetes killed 1.3 lakh people in India in 2015
The number of diabetics in India doubled from 32 million in 2000 to 63 million in 2013, and the figure is projected to further increase to 101.2 million in the next 15 years, says the latest assessment by the World Health Organization, raising an alarm over the need to treat and contain the condition.
Public health agencies worldwide are concerned as diabetes is linked to ailments ranging from stroke to cardiovascular disease, with long-term implications. Though mortality due to diabetes is relatively less when compared to cancer and cardiac disorders, the disease imposes costs by way of medication and productivity of individuals. Besides, diabetes often also creates trouble in the treatment of other diseases.
Further, experts point at the escalating socio-economic costs. The annual spend on diabetes treatment in India is pegged at Rs 1.5 lakh crore, 4.7 times the Centre’s allocation of Rs 32,000 crore for health and three-fourth of the budgeted service tax collections this fiscal. This cost is projected to rise by 20-30% every year. The government has alre ady initiated multisec toral approaches to tackle the rising burden of non-communicable diseases with a special focus on diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular diseases. The strategy includes measures for prevention, early detection, infrastructure development and human resource. WHO has further recommended that the government regulate the marketing of food to children and insist on accurate labelling of food items to help consumers make decisions that can help them avoid diabetes.
According to Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, regional director, WHO, south-east Asia, taxing sugary beverages and re-investing the revenue in health promotion activities is an evidence-based intervention that could ensure real change.In India, around 75,900 men and 51,700 women in the age group of 30-69 years died due to diabetes in 2015, while 46,800 men and 45,600 women above 70 died of the disease during the period, according to WHO.However, the agency maintains the mortality data is uncertain in the absence of national monitoring. The UN agency has adopted diabetes as its theme for the World Health Day this year on April 7.
Globally , over 400 million people were reported suffering from diabetes in 2014. This included 8.5% of adults aged 20-79 years.
