The U.N. health agency said diabetes is part of a growing epidemic of noncommunicable diseases that threaten the world's poorest countries. It estimated the number of cases in the developing world could soar from 115 million in 2000 to 284 million in 2030.

"Even as these countries are struggling to address the problems of HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, they must also prepare to deal with the onslaught of diseases that come with changes in lifestyle and aging of their populations," said Dr. Catherine Le Gales-Camus, WHO assistant director-general.

Some 90 percent of the world's estimated 171 million people with the disease have type-2 diabetes, which is associated with obesity and lack of exercise.

In some countries, the disease is already outstripping the capabilities of health authorities. Officials in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan said Thursday that lives of thousands of diabetes patients are in danger because the country is running out of its insulin stock.

The reserve of insulin available at the Health Ministry, which provides insulin to more than 4,000 people, will last one or two weeks, officials said. Pharmaceutical companies have suspended insulin shipments to Kyrgyzstan because the country owes more than $700,000, said the ministry's spokeswoman Yelena Bayalinova.

In a statement timed to coincide with World Diabetes Day, WHO said it was developing a global strategy in association with the International Diabetes Federation to help countries prevent diabetes and other diseases related to unhealthy diets and physical inactivity, particularly among low- and middle-income communities.

Diabetes is a chronic disease characterized by having too much glucose in the blood because the body is not producing insulin or not using insulin properly.

At least one death in every 20 worldwide is due to diabetes, WHO said. Direct health care costs range from 2.5 percent to 15 percent of annual health care budgets. Indirect costs, such as loss of production, may be five times that.

Separately, In Brussels, Belgium, the European Commission said Thursday it was concerned about the increase in diabetes and said it would spend $13.7 million over the next five years on research into the disease, centering on the treatment of obesity.

Source: Yahoo News: Associated Press.