International News

WASHINGTON, July 19 (APP/AFP) – Almost one-third of
the US population — 100 million people — either has diabetes or its precursor condition, known as pre-diabetes, said a government report Tuesday.
Diabetes is a serious disease that doubles the risk of early death.
Complications can include blindness, heart disease, stroke, kidney failure and amputation of fingers, toes and limbs.
In the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National
Diabetes Statistics Report, released about every two years, the agency described diabetes as a “growing health problem” that was the seventh leading cause of death in the US in 2015.
That year alone, an estimated 1.5 million new cases of diabetes were
diagnosed among people ages 18 and older, it said.
“Consistent with previous trends, our research shows that diabetes
cases are still increasing, although not as quickly as in previous years,” said Ann Albright, director of the CDC’s Division of Diabetes Translation.
A total of 30.3 million people in the United States have diabetes,
accounting for 9.4 percent of the population.
Another 84.1 million — about one in three people — have
prediabetes, a condition that if not treated often leads to type 2 diabetes within five years.
People with prediabetes have higher than normal blood sugar, but not
quite to the threshold of being type 2 diabetes.
However, doctors say that damage to the heart, blood vessels and
kidneys may already be starting.
Another troubling statistic unearthed by the report showed many
people are unaware of their condition.
“Nearly one in four adults living with diabetes — 7.2 million
Americans — didn’t know they had the condition,” it said.