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Date Published: 12/11/2021
ARCHIVED - Spain has second highest rate of diabetes in Europe
The number of people with diabetes in Spain has increased by 42%
As Spain battles to avoid a sixth wave of coronavirus, experts have warned that the country is well on its way to another health crisis as new data has revealed that this country has the second-highest prevalence of diabetes in all of Europe. According to the 10th Edition of the IDF Atlas, at least one in seven adults suffers from the debilitating disease and this number has increased by 42% in the last two years.
Spain is far from the exception, however, as the study, which was published on World Diabetes Day on November 14, highlighted the fact that 537 million adults are currently living with diabetes across the globe, a significant 16% increase on 2019.
In Spain, 5.1 million adults have the disease while health spending related to diabetes is well into the billions.
More worrying still is the fact that almost a third of people living with diabetes in Spain are undiagnosed and therefore untreated, putting them at risk of serious and life-threatening complications such as heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, blindness and amputation.
According to Dr Antonio Pérez, president of the Spanish Diabetes Society (SED), in recent years, “there has been a sharp increase” in the number of people suffering from diabetes in Spain. The time for talk, he insisted, is over, and immediate action must be taken to reverse the trend.
“Political and health leaders must move from words to deeds to improve the lives of people with diabetes and to prevent the disease in those at high risk of developing it,” the expert concluded.
Image: World Diabetes Day
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