DIABETES AND THE UN HIGH LEVEL SUMMIT ON NON-COMMUNICABLE DISEASES

That this House notes the enormous impact of diabetes, with at least 2.8 million people diagnosed with the disease in the UK and 300 million globally, and is concerned that without decisive action the global figure could grow to 500 million within a generation; recognises that one person dies every eight seconds from diabetes and that the global health care costs of the disease are 234 billion; congratulates the International Diabetes Federation and its sister organisations in the NCD Alliance for their role in securing a UN High Level Summit on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) on September 19-20 in New York; further notes that the scale of diabetes and the three other NCDs cancer, cardiovascular disease and chronic respiratory disease threatens social and economic progress and therefore should be a high priority for heads of state and government; urges the Prime Minister to attend the Summit and consider the NCD Alliance's Proposed Outcomes document, the 34 recommendations of which aim to reduce deaths from NCDs by two per cent. a year, saving 36 million deaths over 10 years; and believes that without concerted and co-ordinated action on an international scale healthy people will become a minority in a world where children die before their parents and where economic progress is reversed.