At least 1.3 billion people across the globe will be living with diabetes by 2050, a recent study has warned.
This means that a total of 13.4 percent of the world's population is expected to live with diabetes by 2050. At present, the number of people living with the condition is 6.7 percent (529 million).
The findings published in medical journal The Lancet also forecast that no country will see a decline in age-standardized diabetes rates over the next 30 years.
It is estimated that by 2050 the global population will be about 9.8 billion.
"Diabetes is pervasive, exponentially growing in prevalence, and outpacing most diseases globally… Worse still, structural racism experienced by minority ethnic groups and geographic inequity experienced by low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are accelerating soaring rates of diabetes disease, illness, and death around the world," the paper reads.
The authors of the paper whose study took place at the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, say that the majority of the cases will be Type-2 - the form of the disease that is linked to obesity and preventable.
The life-threatening disease is often linked to many heart and kidney conditions, and it also accelerates the effects of stroke.
"The rapid rate at which diabetes is growing is not only alarming but also challenging for every health system in the world," said Liane Ong, lead author of the paper.
The study, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, also says that the COVID-19 pandemic has amplified diabetes inequity globally, with people suffering the condition - especially those from ethnic minority groups - 50 percent more likely to develop severe infection and twice as likely to die than those without diabetes.
India & Diabetes
India is also known as the 'Diabetes Capital of the World,' accounting for 17 percent of the total number of diabetes patients worldwide.
Another research paper published earlier this month in The Lancet revealed that approximately 101 million individuals (11.4 percent of the population) in India have been diagnosed with diabetes, and 136 million individuals (15.3 percent) have been identified as pre-diabetic.
And in the past four years, diabetes cases in the country increased by more than 44 percent, reaching 70 million in 2019.