Enormous Burden of Diabetes in Latin America and
the Caribbean
Every year, more than 330,000 people die in the region
of the Americas due to causes related to diabetes.
Diabetes affects approximately 28 million people
in the region
One of the most serious problems in Latin America
and the Caribbean, both in terms of public health
and economic burden, is diabetes, according to a
new study by experts from the Pan American Health
Organization (PAHO) and the Alberto Hurtado University
of Chile.
Estimates indicate that permanent disability
resulting from the disease causes expenditures
above $50 billion
per year. Related temporary disabilities result
in another $700 million in costs.
The costs associated with insulin and other drugs
for people with diabetes in Latin America and the
Caribbean, according to data analyzed for the year
2000, totaled $4.7 billion dollars, hospitalizations
totaled $1 billion, consultations $2.5 billion
and care for complications another $2.4 billion.
Dr. Alberto Barcelo, regional adviser on chronic
diseases at PAHO and principal author of the
study, said that all these numbers "show that diabetes
imposes a very high economic burden on the individuals
and society of each country and on the region of
Latin America and the Caribbean as a whole. Although
we may have underestimated the direct costs of diabetes,
our results show a gap between health expenditures
in the region and the cost of diabetes care. This
gap may promote adverse outcomes, such as a high
frequency of complications, disabilities and premature
mortality notably discouraging patients from seeking
health care."
The diabetes burden was also measured in terms
of time lost either by temporary or permanent
disability or death. "The number of people with diabetes
who were temporarily disabled was estimated at over
6 million," Barcelo said, and assuming that
40% of patients with diabetes were economically active, "diabetes
caused the loss of 136,700 discounted years of productivity
costing over $763 million from loss of days at work."
In Latin America and in the Caribbean, there
is the added problem that many people who have
diabetes
do not have access to health services and thus
to
specialized treatments. The study was recently
published in the bulletin of the World Health
Organization.
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