Latvia has highest prevalence of diabetes among Baltic states

RIGA - Latvia has the highest prevalence of diabetes among the Baltic states, Indra Stelmane, President of the Latvian Diabetes Federation, informed today at the expert seminar "Effective treatment of diabetes - an example for reducing the socio-economic burden".

She indicated that the number of registered patients with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes has increased dramatically in Latvia in recent years. Since 2010, the number of type 2 diabetes cases has increased by 31.2 percent, and cases of type 1 diabetes has risen by 26.2 percent.

Currently, the number of diabetes patients in Latvia is approaching 100,000 people, with the highest prevalence of diabetes in the Baltic states among 20-79 year old people. In Lithuania the figure is 3.8 percent, in Estonia 4.2 percent and in Latvia it is 5 percent.