World Diabetes Day 2021 – “Access to Diabetes Care: If Not Now, When?”

Highlights:

• India is ranked as the second-largest diabetic population globally
• World Diabetes Day is celebrated every 14th November globally to emphasize the alarming burden of diabetes
• This year's theme for World Diabetes Day 2021-23 is “Access to Diabetes Care: If Not Now, When?”

World Diabetes Day is celebrated on 14th November every year to bring awareness to the global public health issue of diabetes and its care. This year, the campaign 2021-23 revolves around the central theme of “Access to Diabetes Care: If Not Now, When?”

Advertisement

What is Diabetes?

Diabetes is a serious metabolic disease that is characterized by high blood glucose (blood sugar). It occurs when your body does not sufficiently produce or utilize a hormone made by the pancreas called insulin (which allows glucose from food to get into your body cells for energy). It is the major cause of several complications like heart attack, kidney failure, blindness, stroke, and limb amputations (especially lower limbs). Timely access to care may help prevent the burden of the disease and delay further complications.

Advertisement

Types of Diabetes

The types of diabetes are:

• Type 1 diabetes – Also known as childhood-onset or insulin-dependent diabetes, is manifested by the inability of the body to produce insulin.
• Type 2 diabetes – Also known as adult-onset or non-insulin-dependent diabetes is manifested by ineffective use of insulin by the body.
• Gestational diabetes – It is the increased blood glucose levels (hyperglycemia), commonly recognized during pregnancy. It may or may not continue as diabetes throughout life.

The most commonly preferred method to diagnose type 2 diabetes is glycated haemoglobin (A1C – measures average blood sugar level for the past two to three months). The following are the categorized values of HbA1C:

• Below 5.7% – Normal.
• 5.7% to 6.4% – Prediabetes.
• 6.5% or higher – Diabetes.

Advertisement

Burden of Diabetes

Diabetes affected nearly 422 million adults worldwide, as per an estimate in 2014. This shows that the prevalence of diabetes has almost doubled since 1980 (108 million affected).

This is partly due to increased risk factors like obesity. India is ranked as the second-largest diabetic population globally.

History of World Diabetes Day

World Diabetes Day was formulated for the first time in 1991 by IDF and the World Health Organisation as a response to the alarming rise of diabetes.

The international day then came into effect officially on 14th November 2007 as per the resolution 61/225 by United Nations General Assembly. The document acknowledged “the urgent need to pursue multilateral efforts to promote and improve human health, and provide access to treatment and health-care education.”

In addition, the resolution also invigorated the Member States to improve the care, treatment, and prevention strategies of diabetes through national healthcare policies.

Diabetes – The Timeline

Diabetes has been considered to have an arduous march through history since ~1550 BC. However, it was only around the 1850s that the difference between type 2 and type 1 diabetes was rooted.

The idea for insulin research was formulated for the first time in October 1920 by Frederick G Banting for which he joined John JR Macleod the same year. Banting and Charles H Best used the first extracted insulin in 1921 (later purified in December 1921 by James B Collip) to regulate the blood glucose of a dog, named “Marjorie”.

Finally, the first successful insulin injection was administered to Leonard Thompson on January 23, 1922, for which Banting and Macleod were awarded the Nobel Prize in October 1923.

This year, the WHO and partners mark the 100th anniversary of the insulin discovery on the international event and consequently intend to bridge the gigantic gap between insulin access and diabetes control since its discovery.

World Diabetes day 2021

World Diabetes Day delivers a prospect to cultivate global awareness of diabetes for enhanced management strategies.

With disrupted diabetic care amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the day additionally warrants high necessity for controlling diabetes among critically ill or hospitalized COVID-19patients.

WHO strives to highlight the challenges that emerged against diabetes this year and scale up the access to diabetic management.

Access to Diabetes Care

The global 2021 theme for World Diabetes Day 2021-23 provides access to various campaign materials for public guidance on the timely care of diabetes.

The centenary year of insulin discovery offers an exclusive opportunity to lance an eloquent change among the lives of millions suffering from diabetes. Officially, the blue circle logo symbolizes diabetes awareness on this international diabetes day.

2021 Campaign

Get on your blue circles – wear a t-shirt, necklace, or bracelet with the blue logo to instigate awareness of this dangerous disease among the public.

Activities like organizing or sponsoring a diabetes fair, organizing diabetes-screening camps, disseminating brochures, infographics, toolkits on diabetes care, and raising funds for break-through research in diabetes.

Event Undertaken

The Pan American Health Organization in collaboration with the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) marked the world diabetes campaign by organizing a global webinar – “Increasing Access to Diabetes Care in the Americas Region” on 12th November 2021 (Friday).

Other events organized:

• #Nailing Diabetes challenge is organized to nail a cure for diabetes. People all around the world are invited to paint their nails blue as a sign of raising diabetes awareness.
• An expert panel webinar on "Managing CVD and renal risk in type 2 diabetes: beyond glycaemic control" is scheduled on 20 November 2021 (Saturday) @ 1:00 pm Brussels (+01:00 GMT) by The IDF School of Diabetes.

These would help amplify the importance of increasing access to diabetes care and management, for a better quality of life for millions.

Facts on Diabetes

• India is ranked as the second-largest diabetic population globally, affecting every 1 in 6 Indians.
• Nearly 537 million people suffer from diabetes globally and are expected to rise to 578 million by 2030.
• Every 1 in 2 adults (232 million) remains undiagnosed with diabetes.
• More than 3 out of every 4 diabetic people are from low and middle-income countries.
• High blood glucose (hyperglycemia) affects 1 in 6 live births (20 million) during pregnancy.
• 1 in every 5 people who have diabetes is above 65 years of age (136 million).
• Nearly 4.2 million deaths occurred due to diabetes in 2019 and have contributed to a minimum of $760 billion health expenditure (10% of global healthcare expenditure) in 2019.
• The first successful islet cell transplantation was done in 2000 and the first artificial pancreas was developed in 2013.
• It has been nearly 99 years, 9 months, 22 days (as of 13/11/2021) since the first successful insulin injection on humans.
• The first analogue insulin was first introduced in 1996.
• To bring down the global burden of diabetes, almost 311 events, around 73 countries are organized globally on World Diabetes Day.

References

1. Access to Diabetes Care: - (https://worlddiabetesday.org/)
2. World Diabetes Day 2021 - (https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-diabetes-day/2021)
3. World Diabetes Day 14 November - (https://www.un.org/en/observances/diabetes-day)
4. world diabetes day 2021 - (https://www.diabetes.org.uk/get_involved/world-diabetes-day)
5. World Diabetes Day 2021: Increasing Access to Diabetes Care in the Region of the Americas - (https://www.paho.org/en/events/world-diabetes-day-2021-increasing-access-diabetes-care-region-americas)
6. IDF KiDS programme: Creating a supportive school environment for a healthier future generation - (https://www.idf.org/news)

Source-Medindia