One diabetic diagnosed every three mins in UK

One person is diagnosed with diabetes every three minutes in the UK, according to new figures from Diabetes UK. The leading health charity,  which has released the statistic to mark its 75th Anniversary, says the  number of people diagnosed with the condition is growing faster than  ever.

Diabetes UK has looked in detail at official figures and found that  almost 150,000 people were diagnosed with the disease in 2008. In the  previous year, this number was 100,000. This is a conservative estimate  as, when taking into account the people with the condition who have died  in the past year, the number of new cases could be as high as 180,000.

There are currently 2.5 million people in the UK with diabetes and it  is estimated that more than half a million people have the condition but  do not know it. Many health care professionals in the diabetes field are  faced with increasing caseloads and demands on their resources, the  charity notes.