Diabetes will affect12% of adults by 2025

Just under 12 per cent of Maltese adults are expected to be suffering from diabetes by 2025, a report published yesterday shows.

The report - presented at the International Diabetes Federation Europe's general meeting - shows that 9.7 per cent of 20- to 79-year-olds had diabetes in 2006, the ninth highest among the 27 EU countries, Croatia, Turkey and Kazakhstan.

The number of local sufferers has gone up by almost 3,000 between 2003 and 2006, reaching 28,600 two years ago. The report - Diabetes, The Policy Puzzle: Is Europe Making Progress? - was prepared by IDF Europe and the Federation of European Nurses in Diabetes.

It shows that a staggering 84 per cent of local sufferers are either overweight or obese and, while Malta has one of the highest rates of childhood obesity, 1.81 per cent of all pregnant women suffer from gestational diabetes, which remains an important cause of miscarriages.

Germany is the worst off in the 30-country region, with 11.8 per cent of its population already affected by diabetes and expected to go up to 13.3 per cent by 2025.

On the other hand, the United Kingdom has the lowest prevalence of diabetes, with only four per cent of adults suffering from the disease in 2006, although this is expected to increase marginally to 4.6 per cent by 2025. Although there is little available data on the cost of diabetes in Malta, the report calculates that the disease is responsible for more than 10 per cent of healthcare expenditure in most EU countries.

The report also describes the progress made by European governments in introducing national diabetes plans as "frustratingly slow".

In fact, only 13 EU countries have such a plan or a policy framework for diabetes and, although Malta has indicated its intention to introduce a national diabetes plan, this is still not in place.

In an interview with The Times earlier this week, IDF Europe president Eberhard Standl stressed the importance of national action plans for the prevention and care of diabetes.

"We have an increasing number of people with diabetes and, so far, we have failed to have a definite impact on this epidemic," Prof. Standl said yesterday at the opening of the three-day conference, the first time it is being held in Malta.

But Joseph Cassar, the Parliamentary Secretary for Health, said the government was making diabetes a health priority.

"It is the government's wish to have more specialised doctors and thereby improve the provision of diabetes prevention and care," he said.

Stephen Fava, the head of the Diabetes and Endocrine Centre, said one of the major problems locally was a shortage in medical manpower, although young doctors were showing a renewed interest in diabetes.

Prof. Standl noted that diabetes poses challenges to individuals, who have to live with a number of limitations, but is also a burden on society and politicians. The challenges to sufferers include discrimination, IDF Europe vice president Chris Delicata said.

But despite the challenges, there is life after being diagnosed with diabetes, 10-year-old sufferer Jack Delicata explained. The youngster, who was diagnosed when just one year old and was too young to remember, admitted to trying to live his life to the full, just like other children. "My wish for me and other children who suffer from diabetes is that in the future a more effective way to manage diabetes will be found," he said.