Gojka Roglic print      Biography   Dr Gojka Roglic, MD is the Technical Officer of the World Health Organization diabetes programme, and works in the Department of Chronic Diseases and Health Promotion based in Geneva, Switzerland. She took up the post in 1999 and is responsible for generating and updating global estimates of diabetes, its complications and mortality. Dr Roglic has previously worked as diabetologist and epidemiologist in the University Clinic for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases in Zagreb, Croatia. Dr Roglic participated in several national surveys of diabetes prevalence and multinational studies of diabetes epidemiology (the WHO DIAMOND Study, the EURODIAB IDDM Incidence Study, the EURODIAB IDDM Prospective Complications Study, the EURODIAB IDDM Family Nephropathy Study, the EUCLID Study, the WHO Multinational Study of Vascular Disease in Diabetes).       Abstract   The global burden of diabetes and the WHO response to face the challenge The prevalence of diabetes is increasing worldwide, in large part driven by the increased prevalence of risk factors like obesity and physical inactivity. It is estimated that the number of persons with diabetes will increase from over 170 million in the year 2000 to over 360 million in 2025, mostly on account of the increase in developing countries. Diabetes is responsible for some 3 million excess deaths every year. In many countries at least one in ten deaths is attributable to diabetes. The World Health Organization as a technical agency assists its member states in implementing appropriate interventions to prevent diabetes, its complications and related chronic diseases. Its activities are also aimed at raising awareness among policy makers that the diabetes epidemic has the potential to cripple any health care system, and is a serious threat to the attainment of some Millenium Development Goals. Diabetes Action Now is a partnership with the International Diabetes Federation, supported by the World Diabetes Foundation. Its main aim is to provide the evidence base for interventions in diabetes prevention and control, to raise awareness of the diabetes as a major public health threat, and to provide solutions for an adequate response.