Diabetes in the United Arab Emirates and Other Arab Countries: Need for Epidemiological and Genetic Studies

Diabetes mellitus is a heterogeneous group of metabolic diseases, all of which are characterized by high blood glucose levels. If untreated, diabetes can lead to severe complications including blindness, kidney and heart disease, stroke, loss of limbs, and reduced life expectancy. Accordingly, it is a major public health problem, affecting hundreds of millions of people worldwide, and represents an enormous personal problem and has a substantive economic impact on society, with substantial direct and indirect costs. It is estimated that approximately 194 million people have diabetes in the adult population in the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) Regions. This is an increase from the 1995 global estimation of 135 million which was published in a World Health Organization study in 1998. According to the latest statistics, the world population will reach 8 billion by 2025, of which about 300 million will suffer from diabetes.