World Diabetes Day 2020

World Diabetes Day is observed on 14 November each year focuses on a theme related to diabetes; type-2 diabetes is largely preventable and treatable non-communicable disease that is rapidly increasing in numbers worldwide.

Daily Current Affairs Quiz 2020

Key-Points

 It is because the day marks the birth anniversary of scientist and Nobel laureate Frederick Banting who discovered insulin (in 1922).

It was started in 1991 by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and the World Health Organisation (WHO). The day became an official United Nations Day in 2006.

A blue circle logo, adopted in 2007 serves as the global symbol for diabetes.

Diabetes is a chronic disease, which occurs when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin, or when the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces. This leads to an increased concentration of glucose in the blood (hyperglycaemia).

Type 1 diabetes (previously known as insulin-dependent or childhood-onset diabetes) is characterized by a lack of insulin production.

Type 2 diabetes (formerly called non-insulin-dependent or adult-onset diabetes) is caused by the body’s ineffective use of insulin. It often results from excess body weight and physical inactivity.

Gestational diabetes is hyperglycaemia that is first recognized during pregnancy.