World Diabetes Day 2024

Every November 14, World Diabetes Day is commemorated. This is an opportunity to raise awareness about the impact of diabetes on people's health and to highlight the opportunities to strengthen the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diabetes.

This year’s theme, “Breaking Barriers, Bridging Gaps,” underpins our commitment to reducing the risk of diabetes and ensuring that all people diagnosed with diabetes have access to equitable, comprehensive, affordable, and quality treatment and care. Join us in raising awareness, spreading knowledge, and creating lasting change for all affected by diabetes.

Key facts about diabetes

Type 1 diabetes is not preventable.
Type 2 diabetes is often preventable through a healthy diet, regular physical activity, maintaining normal body weight, and avoiding tobacco use.
Diabetes is a major cause of blindness, kidney failure, heart attacks, stroke, and lower limb amputation.
Diabetes can be treated, and its complications avoided or delayed with regular screening and treatment.
People with diabetes should seek regular screening for complications to aid in early detection. This includes screening for kidney disease, regular eye exams, and foot assessment.
Quitting smoking reduces the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 30-40%.
Diabetes is associated with about twice the risk of tuberculosis (TB) disease and a higher risk of multidrug-resistant TB. People with both TB and diabetes are twice as likely to die during TB treatment and have twice the risk of TB relapse after treatment completion.
Only about 50% of people with type 2 diabetes get the insulin they need, often because their country’s health systems cannot afford it.

Why is diabetes important? +

Worldwide, the number of people living with diabetes (PLWD) has increased from 108 million to 420 million in the last thirty years; 62 million people with diabetes are in the Region of the Americas. This number has increased over three-fold in the Region since 1980 and could be even higher since 40% of PLWD are unaware of their condition and undiagnosed.

The burden of disease associated with diabetes is enormous and growing: in just 20 years, diabetes mortality has increased by over 50% worldwide. In the Region of the Americas, it is the sixth leading cause of death and the fifth cause of years of life lost prematurely.

In the Region, diabetes (including diabetes-related kidney disease) causes approximately eight million years of life lost each year due to premature death. Diabetes is currently the third leading cause of DALYs, preceded only by ischemic heart disease and COVID-19.

Why is it difficult to control diabetes? +

The expansive growth of the diabetes epidemic goes hand in hand with the increase in its risk factors. The Americas is the region with the most overweight/obesity and physical inactivity in the world: 68 out of 100 adults are overweight or obese and 36 out of 100 people have an insufficient level of physical activity.

The increase in risk factors for diabetes is alarming in children and adolescents. Sixteen out of 100 adolescents and 19 out of 100 children are obese, while 81 out of 100 adolescents practice insufficient physical activity.

People living with diabetes face different barriers to accessing health care:

Treatment for diabetes and its complications can be costly and often requires high out-of-pocket expenses.
Insulin is crucial to sustaining the lives of people with type 1 diabetes and many with type 2 diabetes.
In many countries, diabetes care is not included in universal health coverage, and there are gaps in primary health care services and access to other care levels.

What can we do to control diabetes? +

Halting the rise in diabetes is possible and goes hand in hand with implementing strategies such as:

Prevention of diabetes and its risk factors, especially overweight/obesity and insufficient physical activity.
Screening for diabetes in the general population and closely monitoring the population at risk.
Improving the diagnostic capacity of health services for diabetes.
Continuous monitoring of people living with diabetes.
The capacity for referral and care at the secondary health care level.
Access to quality diabetes education guarantees adequate training for the healthcare team, people living with diabetes, their immediate environment, their caregivers, and society in general.
Access to essential diabetes medicines and technologies, including insulin.
Information systems for data collection for monitoring and surveillance of diabetes.

PAHO's work to tackle diabetes +

PAHO/WHO offers technical assistance and provides resources, including:

The HEARTS–D technical package: Diagnosis and management of type 2 diabetes.
Diabetes Self-Care Guidelines. Module 1: Foot Care.
Diabetes Self-Care Guidelines. Module 2: Physical Activity.
The WHO package of essential noncommunicable (PEN) disease interventions for primary health care.
The Health Technology Manual: Improving the Integrated Management of Chronic Diseases at the First Level of Health Care Services
The Passport to Healthy Lifestyle.
The technical document "Best buys" for the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases.
The PAHO Strategic Fund can help countries increase access to and availability of essential medicines, including insulin and other diabetes medicines and technologies.