The theme of the 2016 World Diabetes Day campaign is “Eye on diabetes.” The activities and campaign material focus 
on promoting the importance of early diagnosis of type 2 diabetes and immediate initiation of treatment to reduce the risks of serious complications.
Diabetes is a major public health issue around the world. It is estimated that there were 415 million adults living with diabetes in 2015 and this number tends to increase to 642 million by 2040. One in two adults with diabetes has not been diagnosed. Many of these people live with the disease for long periods of time and are unaware of their condition. When they are finally diagnosed, the complications may already be present. Up to 70% of cases of type 2 diabetes can be prevented by adopting healthy living habits, which could mean that 160 million people would stop acquiring the disease by 2040.
Scientific and Technical Literature on Diabetes
BIREME/PAHO/WHO recommends the access to documents and information sources of scientific and technical information in the Virtual Health Library (VHL) regarding the topics of the World Diabetes Day 2016.
Links of interest
Diabetes International Federation
Sociedade Brasileira de Diabetes (in Portuguese)
Medline Plus page on diabetes (for patients)
