[Health India]: New Delhi: A world body has chosen "fight obesity, prevent diabetes" as the theme for the World Diabetes Day to raise awareness about links between the unhealthy living habits and the disease.

"Individual actions are not sufficient to halt the current epidemic," said Pierre Lefebvre, director of International Diabetes Foundation (IDF) on the occasion of World Diabetes Day Sunday.

"A consecrated effort is required by health professionals, policy makers and the private sector."

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), around 90 percent of people with the illness have type 2 diabetes, and of these a vast majority are overweight or obese.

According to WHO estimates, India has the largest number of diabetics in the world -- one-fifth of the total 150 million afflicted by the disease.

India is followed by China and the US.

The number of people with diabetes in developing countries is expected to rise to 228 million by 2025, the highest of all in India with 57.2 million.

According to the WHO, almost 80 percent of all new diabetes cases in the future are expected to appear in developing countries due to changes in living habits.

On World Diabetes Day, observed on the birthday of Frederick Banting -- one of the scientists who discovered insulin -- IDF, an NGO based at Cape Town in South Africa, aims to spread awareness through workshops, seminars and free blood test camps in its 145 member countries, including India.

"Obesity increases the risk of many chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes...Unless we address the underlying causes of the obesity epidemic, it has the potential to overwhelm health systems throughout the world," said Catherine Le Galès-Camus, WHO's assistant director-general for Non-communicable Diseases and Mental Health.

--Indo-Asian News Service