'Immediate action' on diabetes needed

Immediate action is required from governments around the world in order to alleviate the threat of diabetes, experts have claimed.

The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) has called upon nations across the globe to unite in an effort against diabetes and to include the disease in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals and other aid programmes.

Speaking at the ECOSOC Annual Ministerial Review Regional Ministerial Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) in Doha, IDF president, professor Martin Silink, called for the implementation of low-cost solutions to diabetes.

"The global epidemic of diabetes and other non-communicable diseases is hitting the poorest hardest. Four in five deaths from NCDs now occur in low and middle-income countries," he stated.

"It is time for the world to provide essential medicines for NCDs like diabetes in the same way as it has addressed the need to provide essential medicines and vaccines for communicable diseases like HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and malaria."

More than 200 member associations from more than 160 countries make up the IDF.

News brought to you by Global Health TV, connecting health communities