62.4 million people afflicted with diabetes in India

A study conducted in four states has estimated that 62.4 million people in the country are afflicted with diabetes and another 77.2 million with pre-diabetes.

The study, conducted in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Chandigarh representing the four regions of the county, by Indian Council of Medical Research and India Diabetes, estimated that in 2000 there were 31.7 million people afflicted with the disease while in 2007 it rose to 40.9 million.

"In 2010 the number went up to 50.8 million and in the last one year 11.6 million people were also afflicted with the disease", Madras Diabetic Research Foundation President and Diabetes Research Chief Dr V Mohan told reporters here.

"The study shows there are 62.4 million people with diabetes and an additional 77.2 million are pre-diabetes," he said.

He said the prevalence of the disease in urban Tamil Nadu was 13.7 per cent while in rural it stood at 7.8 per cent, taking the total number of afflicted persons to 4.8 million.

In Jharkhand, the prevalence in urban areas was 13.5 per cent while in rural areas it was three per cent taking the total to 0.96 million people afflicted with the disease.

In Maharashtra the prevalence of diabetes in urban areas was 10.9 per cent while in rural Maharashtra it was at 6.5 per cent leading to six million people afflicted with the disease.

However, the prevalence of the disease in Chandigarh was leading the list at 14.2 per cent in urban areas, while in rural areas the prevalence was 8.3 per cent translating to 1.2 million diabetic people.

Diabetologist Dr RM Anjana said the study also identified that there were 39 lakh people under pre-diabetes in Tamil Nadu, 15 lakh in Jharkhand, 92 lakh people in Maharashtra and 1.3 lakh people in Chandigarh.