DAWN Worldwide Call to Action

The scale of the problem that diabetes poses to world health is still widely under-recognized. The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) estimates that if current trends continue, the number of people with diabetes will almost double to 333 million by the year 2025.

Diabetes is already the most costly healthcare problem in the westernized and ‘westernizing’ countries. This calls for improved measures to curb the human and economic burden of this chronic condition – through prevention, detection and effective self-management.

As a result of the work done by leading experts and organizations in diabetes around the world, a call to action was made at the 2nd International DAWN Summit in November 2003: In order to improve the health and quality of life of people with diabetes, we must address the people behind the disease.