Diabetes experts launch an urgent 200-day plan to tackle diabetes in India

Prevalence of type II diabetes is expected to increase to 10.7 per cent by 2040, costing South East Asia including India, an estimated $12.9 billion.

Leading experts in diabetes from India issued a series of urgent recommendations for implementation during the next 200 days, in order to reduce the growing national burden of type II diabetes in the coming years.

These recommendations include early action: prevention, early detection, early control and early access to the right interventions. They were presented at the Global Diabetes Policy Forum, held recently in Berlin, Germany. The Forum was organised and funded by AstraZeneca in collaboration with the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), Primary Care Diabetes Europe (PCDE), and the World Heart Federation (WHF), and supported by German Diabetes Aid (GDA) with its headquarters in Berlin.

Type 2 diabetes currently affects more than 69.1 million people in India. Poorly controlled type II diabetes can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, blindness, kidney failure, amputations and premature death. It is estimated that 1 million deaths per year in India are attributable to type II diabetes.

In addition to presenting their 200-Day plan, experts from India joined other international leaders in diabetes at this year’s Forum in signing The Berlin Declaration. This manifesto is for establishing foundational principles as well as specific targets and policy recommendations to help countries formulate and implement policies to improve health outcomes for people living with, or at risk of, diabetes. The 200-Day plans have taken inspiration from this document, which has been endorsed by several international experts.

The Forum carried forward the work begun under the banner of ‘Early Action in Diabetes’ at the first Global Diabetes Policy Summit, held in Barcelona, Spain, in November 2015. Participants in this year’s Forum included leading clinical experts in diabetes, as well as patient group representatives, policy makers, and political leaders.

Forum participants plan to reconvene in Rome, Italy in October 2017 for the third Global Diabetes Policy Summit, at which they will take stock of progress achieved in implementing the recommendations contained in the Berlin Declaration.