Since the turn of the new millennium, the number of people with diabetes has more than doubled. Despite warning signs, governments have been slow to act.
Diabetes is now a global epidemic with devastating humanitarian, social and economic consequences. More than 230 million people worldwide are living with the disease. This number is expected to rise to a staggering 350 million within 20 years. If nothing is done to halt the advance of the epidemic, the number of people living with diabetes will soon be greater than the current populations of the United States, Canada and Australia combined.
Each year, more than three million people die from diabetes-related causes. The burden is particularly harsh in the developing world, where many children with Type 1 diabetes die because they lack access to life-saving insulin and where the majority pays for their health care from their own pocket to the detriment of the family budget.
Beyond the devastating humanitarian costs, diabetes threatens to subvert the gains of economic development globally as a consequence of spiraling costs of medical care. In 2007, the world will spend an estimated $215 billion to $375 billion to care for diabetes and its complications. If nothing is done over the next 20 years, the figure will rise to between $234 billion and $411 billion.
Diabetes is growing fastest in low- and middle-income countries. It is, therefore, the developing countries that will bear the brunt of the spiraling costs. Soon, almost 80 percent of all diabetes cases will be in countries currently considered developing. Already, seven out of the 10 countries with the highest number of people living with diabetes are in the developing world.
In Saudi Arabia, almost one Saudi in four beyond the age of 30 has diabetes mellitus costing the government $800 per month, according to World Health Organization (WHO) records.
The overwhelming costs of the disease threaten to stunt economic growth and undermine the benefits of improved standards of living and education. To do nothing in the face of the emerging crisis, to ignore its seriousness, or to dismiss its impact is foolhardy and irresponsible.
I strongly believe that it is time for governmental, nongovernmental and commercial agencies to tackle the educational, behavioral, nutritional and public-health issues that are driving the diabetes epidemic. Concerted action is needed now.
In order to tackle the diabetes epidemic in Saudi Arabia, it will be necessary to take action that goes beyond the scope of the Ministry of Health (MOH) alone.
Workable solutions will require whole-of-other party’s participation including the Ministry of Social Affairs as well as the Ministry of Education and may be others. It will also require the attention of the highest authority in the country.
I am not exaggerating if I recommend that commitment or an initiative in this regard to prevent and improve the life of people with diabetes in Saudi Arabia by the Council of Ministers.
Such an initiative will raise awareness among decision makers and stakeholders involved. Such declaration should outline the commitment of the whole government toward:
• Increased national awareness of diabetes.
• Greater recognition of the human, social and economic burden of diabetes.
• Recognition of the fact that diabetes is becoming a health priority.
• Implementation of cost-effective strategies to prevent diabetes complications.
• Affordable public-health strategies for the prevention of diabetes itself.
• Recognition of “special needs” groups (diabetes in children, the elderly, diabetes during pregnancy).
(Abdulaziz Al AlSheikh is country manager at LifeScan, a Johnson & Johnson company in Saudi Arabia and a world leader in diabetes care management. He is based in Riyadh.)