Today, as on every 14 November, we celebrate World Diabetes Day. The campaign slogan for World Diabetes Day 2009 celebration is "Understand Diabetes and Take Control". On this day, WHO engages people in a worldwide campaign focusing on diabetes advocacy, awareness and effective prevention and control.
Diabetes is a serious disease that imposes life-long demands on people living with the disease and their families. In December 2006, the United Nations General Assembly passed a landmark resolution recognizing diabetes as a chronic, debilitating and costly disease.
Over the past decades, the number of diabetics has increased from an estimated 30 million in 1985 to over 150 million in 1995 and to about 250 million today. In addition, it is estimated that over 300 million people worldwide are at risk for Type 2 diabetes, the most prevalent, yet preventable type of diabetes. Unless effective prevention and control measures are urgently undertaken, the number of diabetics may reach 360 million by 2025. Many of the diabetics would be pregnant women, adolescents and children. In the WHO African Region, the number of cases is expected to double over the same period from 10.2 million in 2005 to more than 20 million by 2025. This explosion of diabetes is likely to overwhelm health care systems everywhere and undermine the gains of economic development. Most of Type 2 diabetes cases can be prevented by educating and encouraging those at risk to maintain a healthy weight, do regular physical activity, and adopt a healthy diet rich in fruits and vegetables and with low content of sugar, fats and salt.
In the absence of proper diabetes education, people who have diabetes are less prepared to take informed decisions, make behavioural changes, and address the psychosocial issues related to the disease. Unable to manage their diabetes effectively, they are likely to have adverse health outcomes and develop serious complications.
Since people who have diabetes have to deliver most of the care they need by themselves, it is very important that they receive ongoing, high-quality, diabetes education tailored to their needs and provided by skilled health professionals. Diabetes educators, therefore, play an important role within the diabetes care teams. They enable people with diabetes to manage their condition to the best of their ability so that their choices and actions would be based on informed judgment.
Resources for the provision of diabetes education are particularly lacking in our Region where most people who have diabetes lack access to diabetes education due to factors such as cost, distance, and lack of appropriate services. Many more may be unaware of the services that exist or are, perhaps, not convinced of the benefits that diabetes education can bring. Many patients may feel, for example, that only one interaction with their physician can provide them with all the education they need on diabetes.
All those responsible for diabetes should bear in mind that investment in diabetes education and diabetes prevention programmes will save money in the long term and bring significant returns that will reflect on the quality of life of people with diabetes or at high risk of diabetes.
Let us use the World Diabetes Day 2009 campaign to promote the importance of structured diabetes education programmes as crucial elements of diabetes prevention and control and advocate for increased opportunities for diabetes education within health care systems and communities.
These actions will contribute immensely to reducing the related huge costs, ill-health, disability and premature death.
I therefore call upon people with diabetes to seek better education and be active actors in the management of their conditions. I call upon the general public to understand the serious impact of diabetes and know how to prevent it and reduce its complications. I call upon health care professionals to improve their knowledge so that they can help put into practice evidence-based recommendations. I also call upon health workers to guide patients to become independent and proactive in the management of their cases, and to encourage them to enlist the support of their families and their communities in managing their condition. Finally, I call upon governments to implement effective strategies for screening, diagnosis and early treatment and appropriate policies for better prevention and management of diabetes.
For its part, WHO will provide the necessary technical support to Member States for the development and strengthening of national policies and cost-effective interventions in line with the Ouagadougou Declaration on Primary Health Care and Health Systems and the implementation of the regional strategy for diabetes prevention and control.
As we commemorate World Diabetes Day 2009, let us all join forces and disseminate the right messages about diabetes prevention, early diagnosis, treatment and proper care.
Thank you.