At present, 13% of the country’s total health budget is spent on diabetes treatment, said Farzad Peiravian, a senior official of the Food and Drug administration (FDA), on the sidelines of the ‘Economics of Health’ conference held in Tehran at Parsian Evin Hotel on Sunday. He said the number of patients suffering from diabetes will increase to 9-10 million by the end of the year 2025. “Government should develop proper plans for diabetes control and prevention; otherwise it will pose a heavy financial burden on the exchequer,” IRNA quoted him as saying. There are currently five million known cases of diabetes in Iran.
