Epidemic: An estimated 25 million people are now living with diabetes across the EU, according to a new report.
However, only 11 out of 25 member states have a national framework or plan for dealing with the condition. The Republic is not among them.
The report, entitled Diabetes The Policy Puzzle: Towards Benchmarking in the EU 25, was compiled by the International Diabetes Federation European Region and the Federation of European Nurses in Diabetes. It calls for the development of a comprehensive EU strategy for dealing with diabetes.
It states that at present even in member states with national plans for dealing with diabetes there is "generally a lack of adequate allocation of human and financial resources to implement them".
While there is no national plan for dealing with diabetes in the Republic, one is being developed, according to the report.
It found prevalence rates for diabetes in the Republic, at 3.4 per cent of the total adult population, to be among the lowest in Europe.
"The average prevalence rate across Europe is 7.5 per cent among adults aged 20 years or over. The highest prevalence rate was found in Germany at 10.2 per cent of the adult population.
"Furthermore, it is estimated that up to 50 per cent of people with diabetes are undiagnosed or are unaware of their condition," it said.
"Today Europe finds itself in the midst of a diabetes epidemic. In Germany, for instance, the prevalence of people with diabetes under medical treatment grew in the years 1988-2001 by 43 per cent," it said.
"In the next 20 years the number of cases of diabetes is expected to increase by 71 per cent worldwide, by 21 per cent in the European region. . . this increase will be largely driven by the growing prevalence of type 2 diabetes. Now is the time to act. The fact that our children are at the forefront of this epidemic makes the need for action all the more urgent."
It said "the biggest concern" was that children and adolescents were already developing type 2 diabetes due to increasing levels of obesity.
"Estimates show that one in five children in Europe is overweight. Each year 400,000 children become overweight."
It said the direct cost of caring for people with diabetes in Europe was estimated at €29 billion for eight countries alone in 1989.
It also said several member states had ad hoc screening programmes to reduce complications.
Diabetes, which affects up to 200,000 people in the Republic, is ranked among the leading causes of cardiovascular disease, blindness, renal failure and lower limb amputation, the report stressed.
It states the number of Irish people with diabetes is expected to double by 2010. Some 10 per cent of the Republic's healthcare budget goes on caring for people with diabetes and their related illnesses, it added.
Type 2 diabetes accounts for approximately 90 per cent of all cases of diabetes in the Republic and the report states that, on average, those with type 2 diabetes will die five to 10 years earlier than those without diabetes.
"The development of primary screening and diagnosis programmes should be encouraged," according to the report's authors.