Diabetes is becoming an epidemic in India as more Indians fall to prey to it compared to any other disease. The number of victims is has increased considerably in past few years.
As per data, India has witnessed 12 per cent increase in the number of diabetes cases to 61 million in 2012 as against 50.8 million in the previous year.
In 2012, diabetes caused 9.83 lakh death in the country, the largest contributor to mortality, according to official data .
A Confederation of Indian industry ‘National White Paper on Insights from Multi Stakeholder Consultation- Management and Care of Diabetes in India’ was also released at National Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) meet on June 7, focused on the theme of “Strengthening Policies for Diabetes Care”.
The white paper encapsulates some of the best practices and suggestions from various experts and includes input received from five-state roundtable forums with multi- stakeholder groups organised at Rajasthan, West Bengal, Kerala, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh. Keshav Desiraju, Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, stressed the need to have an intermediate level of public healthcare workers beyond the ASHA workers.
The International Diabetes Federation estimates that 9.2 per cent of adults in India have diabetes, making its prevalence second only to China. Senior officials of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare,leading diabetes experts, scientists, business leaders and representatives from international and national development agencies attended the inaugural programme