Number of Diabetics Increasing

The number of people diagnosed with diabetes in Iran will increase to nearly 10 million by 2040, said the secretary of the Second National Conference of Health Economics. “Right now there are 415 million diabetics around the world (8.8% of the adult population), and the number will increase to nearly 650 million by 2040,” said Dr Farzad Peyrouyan at the event held November 24 at Tehran’s Parsian Evin Hotel. Studies show that between 2-10% of the population in every country are living with diabetes, said health economist Shahram Ghaffari. “Compared with other people, diabetics are six times more likely to develop other conditions that need medical intervention.” The second round of the conference focused on the financial cost for prevention, control, and treatment of diabetes and discussed the national document on the disease, ILNA reported.