The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) released the sixth edition of the Diabetes Atlas on November 14 in recognition of International Diabetes Day.  According to the IDF president, the evidence published in the Atlas demonstrate that millions of people are being swept up by the diabetes pandemic.  It continues to support IDF’s mission to promote solutions to this worldwide health crisis.  With a successful campaign for a UN Resolution on diabetes and data published in the Atlas being used for a subsequent political declaration on non-communicable diseases, the Atlas has been critical to placing diabetes on the highest of decision-making agendas.

Today, there are 382 million people living with diabetes. This number is set to rise to 592 million by 2035.  The full magnitude of the problem may not be accurately captured.  An estimated 175 people with diabetes remain undiagnosed.  A further 316 million with impaired glucose tolerance are at a high risk for developing the disease the disease.  The number of those at a high risk is set to reach 471 million by 2035.

Diabetes is on the rise all over the world and countries are struggling to keep pace. The misconception that diabetes is “a disease of the wealthy” is debunked by the data in the Atlas.  Approximately 80% of people with diabetes live in low- and middle-income countries, and the socially disadvantaged in any country are the most vulnerable to the disease.  With that knowledge, it may be more feasible to get funding to target diabetes prevention and reduction.

By the end of 2013, diabetes will have caused 5.1 million deaths.  Every six seconds a person dies from diabetes.  In Africa, 76% of deaths due to diabetes are in people under the age of 60. Diabetes will have cost $548 billion in healthcare spending by the end of 2013.  This means that 11 percent of total health spending on adults has been for diabetes-related healthcare.

In an analysis of the Atlas and extraction of U.S. data, CBS News reports that the IDF estimates that 9.2 percent of the population will have a form of diabetes by the end of this year. That equals about 24.4 million people who will have it by the end of 2013.  Of these, 6.8 million of whom will go undiagnosed.  About 192,725 Americans will die from the disease this year.

Compared with the data in the Atlas, about 8.3 percent of the U.S. population had a form of diabetes in 2011, according to the American Diabetes Association.  By 2035, the IDF estimates that the percentage of U.S. residents affected by diabetes will increase to 11.6 percent, which amounts to approximately 29.7 million people.