Published in News, Funding & opportunities
Funding: Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases tackles diabetes
There are around 114 million people with diabetes in China—almost 12% of the adult population—and a higher proportion than in the USA and the UK where around one in 20 have the disorder. This statistic, in a country a couple of decades ago associated with a frugal, vegetable-rich diet in its mostly agrarian population. How times change.
The global picture looks worse considering that among more than 1 billion Indians, the rate of diabetes or related disorders (such as impaired glucose tolerance) is rising to 10% in urban areas. And according to WHO, the death rate has doubled, more than 80% of people with diabetes live in low-to-middle-income countries, and nine out of ten of them have type 2 diabetes, which is associated more with lifestyle and lack of exercise than any unfortunate genetic predisposition.
To meet the challenge in emerging economies, the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (GACD) has launched a call for research proposals to prevent and treat type 2 diabetes. The GACD is an alliance of some of the world’s biggest publicly funded research organisations, ranging from the UK’s Medical Research Council to China’s Ministry of Health and the European Commission.