Diabetes surging across rural and urban India

New Delhi: With one in every twelve person suffering from the menace of diabetes, the disease has now become a pan-India phenomenon with the rural and urban population fighting the bug alike.

Director of Diabetes Care Foundation of India Dr. Vikas Ahluwalia, who was addressing a conference on diabetes here on Sunday, revealed that 13 percent of the rural population suffers from the disease which is far more in the urban areas where roughly 40 to 60 percent of the population is diabetic.

Dr. Ahluwalia also expressed his concern over the rising number of diabetic patients in the country.

"Last year, there were 387 million diabetic patients. This year the number has increased to 415 million. One in every twelve persons walking the earth has diabetes," he said.

"Each year, there occur five million deaths all over the world because of diabetes.

Whereas, infectious diseases like malaria, HIV and tuberculosis together lead to four million deaths," he added.

Endocrinologist Dr. Abdul Hamid Zargar, who was also present at the event, brought to the fore the degrading lifestyle of the people in metropolitan cities and blamed the same for the rise in diabetic cases.

"The lifestyle of metropolitan cities is responsible for the rise in diabetes. People don't exercise, the tradition of fast food has increased. Therefore, the chances of diabetes have also increased," said Dr. Zargar.