Diabetes flooding the world

The CEO of Novo Nordisk, Lars Rebien Sorense, has released a statement about the global diabetes situation, published in the Telegraph last month. Sorensen predicted that this year diabetes would kill the same number of people as AIDS, forcing scientists to revise their opinions about which is the major epidemic of recent years.
Many areas of the world with a traditionally small diabetic problem are now facing escalated levels. For instance, African, Asia and Latin America are all increasing in diabetes scale. In the next 20 years, diabetes is set to soar by 80 per cent in African, and 100 per cent in Latin America.
Unfortunately, this outburst of diabetes in developing countries will leave many diabetics without treatment. For the pharmaceutical companies, this will open up emerging markets. In 2006, 246 million people worldwide were affected by diabetes. This equates to 5.9 per cent of the adult population of the world.