Dr Nilesh Buddha, Officer-in-Charge, WHO South-East Asia
Diabetes is one of the fastest growing public health challenges in the WHO South-East Asia Region. An estimated 254 million adults in the Region live with diabetes, with millions undiagnosed, and nearly two-thirds not receiving glucose-lowering treatment. When diagnosed late or managed poorly, diabetes can lead to life-threatening damage to the heart, kidneys, nerves, and eyes.
This year, the theme of World Diabetes Day, “Early action on diabetes,” highlights the importance of earlier diagnosis, access to comprehensive care, and reducing stigma to improve the lives of people with diabetes. Early action starts in communities where healthy choices are within reach and symptoms are recognised early. Primary health care is the foundation for early action, enabling early identification of those at risk and prompt diagnosis. Every diagnosis must be followed by affordable, uninterrupted care, in societies that support people living with diabetes rather than stigmatising them.
The Region is advancing this agenda through SEAHEARTS, the regional initiative to accelerate cardiovascular disease prevention and control. Member States have committed to placing 70 million people with diabetes on protocol-based management by 2030, and to achieving good glycaemic control in 50% of them. As of June 2026, nine countries had scaled up protocol-based management to reach more than 43.5 million people through over 180,000 health-care facilities.
This progress is rooted in global and regional commitments. The WHO Global Diabetes Compact, launched in 2021, aims to reduce the risk of diabetes and ensure that all people diagnosed have access to equitable, comprehensive, affordable, and quality treatment and care. The Implementation roadmap for accelerating the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases in South-East Asia 2022–2030 provides strategic directions and tools for high-impact interventions that are feasible within national contexts. The 2024 Colombo Call to Action: Strengthening prevention and control of diabetes in the WHO South-East Asia Region provides a set of practical and feasible catalytic actions to put the Compact into practice, from strengthening primary health care to improving access to essential medicines and diagnostics.
Countries across the Region have adopted innovative approaches to strengthen diabetes services. These include engaging religious leaders to raise awareness, promoting diabetes remission through lifestyle interventions, and simplifying treatment protocols in primary care. The experiences of Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Timor-Leste, documented in Prevention and Control of Diabetes Mellitus: Lessons for Service Delivery from Countries in the WHO South-East Asia Region, offer practical lessons for scaling up.
However, these experiences also highlight that innovation alone is not sufficient to close persistent gaps in service delivery. Frequent stock-outs of essential medicines, including insulin, and limited access to point-of-care diagnostics continue to disrupt continuity of care, while weak patient follow-up systems undermine long-term management and outcomes.
Governments must sustain political commitment and increase investment in primary health care, essential medicines, diagnostics, trained health workers, and systems that sustain continuity of care. Affordable insulin and essential medicines must be treated as a core component of universal health coverage, backed by supply chains that reach the people who need them most. Efforts should prioritize people facing financial, geographical, or social barriers, so that everyone can access quality diabetes care regardless of health literacy, age, gender, place of residence, or ability to pay.
This World Diabetes Day, let us commit to acting early, to ensure that every person living with diabetes is diagnosed in time, treated promptly, and supported for life.