The World Health Organisation (WHO) marked ‘one hundred-years anniversary’ of the discovery of insulin by launching a new Global Diabetes Compact aimed at boosting efforts to prevent diabetes and giving access to treatment to everyone who needs it.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus the WHO Chief, , said the need to take urgent action on diabetes is clearer than ever.
According to him, the number of people with diabetes has quadrupled in the last forty years, noting that it is the only major non-communicable disease for which the risk of dying early is going up, rather than down.
Mr Tedros said addressing the crisis was particularly important in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, stressing that a high proportion of people who are severely ill in hospital with COVID-19 have diabetes.
