World Diabetes Day is celebrated annually on 14 November and commemorates the birthday of Frederick Banting, who, together with John Macleod was awarded the Nobel Prize for the discovery of the hormone insulin.

The theme of World Diabetes Day, from 2014 to 2016 will be healthy living and diabetes and this year, there’s a focus on healthy eating.

As the prevalence of diabetes increases, the need to learn how to minimize one’s risk of getting it, and to know how to detect and treat it, are all increasing in importance. Therefore WHO marked on 14 November that the Organization’s annual World Health Day, which recognizes its birthday on 7 April, will focus on the issue of diabetes.

World Health Day will provide an important platform for promoting efforts to prevent diabetes and ensure optimal management of the condition for people living with one of the various forms of disease.

According to IDF, every 6 seconds, a person dies from diabetes that means 5.0 million deaths worldwide. In 2012, diabetes was the direct cause of some 1.5 million deaths, with more than 80% of them occurring in low- and middle-income countries. WHO projects that diabetes will be the 7th leading cause of death by 2030.

UN Secretary-General in his message for World Diabetes Day, emphasized that that people must take steps towards leading healthy lives while governments create conditions to stem the global epidemic. “On World Diabetes Day, let us recognize the progress we have made, but let us also acknowledge that it is not yet enough,” he said. “Let us all step up to limit the impact of diabetes.”

The Diabetes Atlas report will be launched at the World Diabetes Congress in Vancouver.

To read the executive summery please click here

Dr. Shima Naghavi, Director of International Affairs