Diabetes is on the rise globally. Since the 1980s the number of people living with the disease has quadrupled from 108 million to 537 million.
This dramatic increase is largely due to the rise in type 2 diabetes and its associated risk factors such as being overweight or obese.
For many years, diabetes was considered a disease of affluence and thought to be rare in sub-Saharan Africa. This is no longer the case. Today 24 million people – one in 22 adults in the region – have diabetes and rates are rapidly increasing.
