DIABETES ON THE RISE IN AFRICA

Health officials have warned that the number of people seeking medical assistance for diabetes in West Africa has shot up in recent years but that programs for treatment have not expanded accordingly, the UN Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) reports.

An estimated 7 million Africans currently have the disease, including 3.3 million West Africans, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The International Diabetes Federation said the current prevalence of rate of 0.5 to 3 percent across Africa could increase by 95 percent by 2010, according to IRIN.

Though diabetes was previously thought to be prevalent largely in developed countries, WHO said that 75 percent of the world's diabetics will live in developing countries by 2025.

In Senegal, the National Center Against Diabetes said an average of 200 new cases were reported each year in the country in the 1980s. That number has increased more than ten-fold with 2,411 new cases reported last year, IRIN reports.

The Diabetics Federation has called for a new campaign to make Africans more aware of the risk of diabetes and to make medication available. The high cost of medicines means that the people with the disease often go untreated.

In Mali insulin can cost as much as 20 percent of monthly household income, and in Burkina Faso a monthly minimum treatment for diabetics costs roughly $16 to $24, not including doctor visits, according to IRIN.