This year on World Health Day, the World Health Organization (WHO) seeks to draw attention to the global burden of diabetes. In recent years, diabetes has been on the rise in low- and middle-income countries. This is due in large part to an increase in obesity in these countries – the result of rapid urbanization, increasingly sedentary lifestyles and lack of access to fresh and nutritious foods. In 2012, more than 80 percent of the 1.5 million deaths the WHO estimated as directly attributable to diabetes occurred in low and middle income countries.
For diabetics living in resource-scarce countries the symptoms of this chronic illness are exacerbated by a lack of access to treatment and, all too frequently, a failure to diagnose the condition altogether. According to the seventh edition of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF)’s Diabetes Atlas approximately 415 million adults are currently living with diabetes worldwide—including nearly 200 million who have not yet been diagnosed. Delayed detection and diagnosis of diabetes can result in complications ranging from heart disease and kidney failure to blindness and lower-limb amputation.
Although there is no cure for diabetes, the effects of the disease can be managed, and complications staved off, through early detection and diagnosis, consistent treatment and the adoption of a healthy diet and lifestyle. As with many illnesses the cost of prevention is much lower than that of the curative approach to treatment.
HVO’s mission to empower health workers and their patients by improving the quality and accessibility of care in resource-scarce countries is crucial to the global fight against diabetes. The long-term impact of a disease such as diabetes on an individual’s overall health cannot be addressed in the short span of a volunteer mission. By building local capacity to diagnose and treat diabetes and other chronic illnesses, HVO volunteers continue to contribute to improved patient outcomes even after they have returned home.
Make a contribution of your own this World Health Day by volunteering or donating to support HVO’s mission!