Unchecked the diabetes epidemic is set to cost the South African government more than 10% of its overall health budget, an unsustainable cost in the face of the country’s high disease burden. Researchers at UCT are working to better understand the impact of the disease, to support evidence-informed policy on what is fast becoming a crisis.  

Diabetes is on the rise globally, with an estimated 537 million people living with diabetes in 2021, that number is projected to increase to 783 million by 2045. According to the International Diabetes Federation’s Diabetes Atlas the greatest increase over the next two decades is set to be in Africa.  

“South Africa has the highest number of people with diabetes on the continent,” said Associate Professor Joel Dave, head of the Division of Endocrinology in the Department of Medicine at UCT’s Faculty of Health Sciences. “According to Stats SA, in the Western Cape, diabetes is the highest cause of mortality of women and the number two cause for mortality of men, after tuberculosis.”  

There are two types of diabetes: type one diabetes, an autoimmune disease most often beginning in childhood, and type two diabetes, which accounts for over 90% of the global cases and for which obesity is the greatest risk factor.  

If left unchecked diabetes causes damage to many of the body’s organs and leads to conditions like cardiovascular disease, nerve damage, kidney damage, lower limb amputations and eye disease, often resulting in visual loss or blindness.   

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