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According to the WHO (World Health Organisation), there were 177 million diabetics in 2000. The latest estimates suggest that there were 200 million in 2005 and that the figure will reach at least 300 million by 2025. There are an estimated 4 million deaths due to diabetes per year, 9% of the total mortality figure.

In Asia, 98 million people suffer from this disease and by 2030 it is estimated that the figure will be 233 million. In the Philippines as in Cambodia, 10 to 12% of the city population are affected (5% in rural areas). Most people are diagnosed at the stage of complications and often need amputations.

Handicap International and Sanofi-Aventis have agreed to set up a pilot programme in 4 countries: India, Nicaragua, the Philippines and Thailand, to transmit better knowledge about and care for diabetes and to limit the handicap situation as much as possible.

The pilot projects address 4 issues:

• Primary prevention of diabetics in the population as a whole through a community approach focused on schools;
• Prevention of incapacitating complications at the level of primary and secondary health care among diabetic patients that includes support for patient education, training of nursing staff, and easier access to medicines;
• Care for people handicapped due to diabetics (amputees, hemiplegics, the visually-impaired, etc.) by implementing the multidisciplinary care network;
• Improving the epidemiological monitoring system for diabetes and its complications.