Over 3m die from diabetes a year

GENEVA - The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday, one day ahead of the World Diabetes Day, that more than 3 million people with diabetes die from related diseases every year.

The death toll is expected to increase by two-thirds by 2030 due to combination of ageing populations and the globalization of unhealthy lifestyles, according to WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic.

He said 350 million people now live with diabetes worldwide and 80 percent of them are in the developing states.

Diabetes can strain national health systems and threaten to reverse hard-won development gains in low and middle income countries, so it's also a development issue, said Jasarevic.

Governments across the globe are struggling to protect their citizens from factors that grow the risk of diabetes, which are unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and alcohol abuse. Many of them also face challenges in providing essential diabetes information, treatment and care.

Diabetes is one of the most common non-communicable diseases and the diabetes-related problems often include heart attack, strokes and kidney failure.