Type 2 diabetes

When the author began her career as a paediatric endocrinologist in Los Angeles, USA, 30 years ago, childhood obesity was rare and type 2 diabetes in young people was almost unheard of. Nowadays, however, one in three children in that city is overweight or obese, and a quarter of the children diagnosed with diabetes at her centre have type 2 diabetes. This situation mirrors developments in paediatric health throughout the world; obesity and type 2 diabetes in young people are now regarded as related global epidemics.

The third edition of the Diabetes Atlas was launched in December 2006, at the 19th World Diabetes Congress of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) in Cape Town, South Africa. The aim of the Atlas, which has been described as the flagship publication of IDF, is to provide the most recent and accurate information on diabetes in 2007 and provide estimates of the likely impact of the condition up to 2025. Its purpose is to disseminate the most up-to-date and salient facts concerning the scope, impact and burden of diabetes globally and on a regional and country-by-country basis.

When IDF brings together the global diabetes community at a World Diabetes Congress, it does so with a number of key objectives, which include raising overall diabetes awareness, sharing innovative ideas and best practices, and helping to build and consolidate networks – in line with the Federation’s mission to promote care, prevention and a cure for diabetes worldwide.

In many countries, young people work effectively as advocates for a range of causes, from inner-city regeneration to anti-bullying and smoking cessation. An IDF initiative aimed to engage Youth Ambassadors in diabetes advocacy worldwide and specifically to participate at as many levels as possible in IDF’s global awareness campaign ’Unite For Diabetes’. In this article, representatives from the group describe the principles and objectives of the IDF Youth Ambassadors programme and make a call for increased involvement of young people in diabetes advocacy.

Diabetes has become a global health problem, reaching epidemic proportions worldwide with serious implications for health and well-being. The International Diabetes Federation estimates that by 2025, almost 350 million people will have diabetes. People who are most vulnerable to this chronic disease include those living in developing countries, and members of minority ethnic groups and socio-economically disadvantaged people in developed countries.

As the number of people with diabetes continues to rise worldwide, huge increases in the prevalence of the condition are expected in Asia. Hospital and outpatient care for people with diabetes in the central Asian Republic of Uzbekistan, with a population of over 26 million people, is provided at state-funded healthcare centres. However, people with the condition have to pay for their insulin and other essential diabetes supplies out of their family income. Diabetes-

Editorial

President's Editorial

As early as 1989, the St Vincent Declaration warned Europeans of the dangers of ignoring the burgeoning diabetes epidemic. The Declaration called on governments, diabetes organizations and professional societies from countries throughout Europe to unite in efforts to tackle the growing challenge to healthcare in the region. There were high hopes among the European diabetes community that significant action would be taken. But despite the broad stakeholder support for the Declaration’s objectives, significant progress failed to materialize.

The human population of our planet is aging. According to UN projections, by the middle of this century, the number of elderly people in the world will exceed the number of young people – for the first time in history. This trend started during the last half of the 20th century. Yet policy-makers are only now becoming aware of the gravity of the implications for developing countries of the rapid pace at which our populations are ageing.