When you hear the word epidemic, you may likely think of diseases that plague thousands of people in less developed countries far away. However, epidemics are not exclusive to such places. The world's most widespread epidemics strike a lot closer to home than you may think.
An epidemic defined is as a disease that has come to affect a large portion of a given population. The exact parameters differ among experts but a good estimation puts the number at around 3% of the population. If the number of people affected by the disease reaches this number, it can be considered an epidemic.
Given this definition, people living in developed countries of the world are not exempt from a growing global epidemic – one that has seen little attention until recently.
Diabetes is now considered an epidemic that is affecting not just a select number of countries but the entire globe. It joins a short, but unfortunately, a growing list of diseases of which, HIV/AIDS is part of.
Projections for the disease’s spread are alarming. The World Health Organization (WHO) pegs the number of diabetes patients to reach 240 million people worldwide by the year 2010.
Eddie
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