The epidemic of diabetes has accelerated beyond expectations, from 7 million new cases a year predicted in 2007 to a whopping 10 million in 2009, Martin Silink, outgoing president of International Diabetic Federation (IDF) said in a speech Monday at the federation's 20th World Diabetes Congress held in Montreal.

Established as one of the most significant events of the global health calendar, the mega-congress attracts 12,000 delegates and 400 speakers. They are at the congress to discuss issues in diabetes care as well as local, national and regional solutions to that Silink warns is "a growing global problem with an economic impact."

An estimated 70,000 children are in desperate of need of life-saving insulin, Silink says, in countries where it takes several days of wages to buy diabetic medicines.

"It's a moral outrage that it is not available - the cost is less than half a cup of coffee." Silink, who heads IDF's Life of a Child Program which raises funds for such children, called for commitment to fix the situation. The Life of a Child program came on the heels of a 2006 Lancet report showing that the most common cause of death for a child with diabetes is lack of access to insulin.

In a few moments, the IDF is to release its Diabetes Atlas featuring the latest diabetes prevalence figures, economic costs of the disease and impact on development.

According to the International Diabetes Federation, 285 million people worldwide have diabetes, or about seven per cent of the world's population, but these conservative numbers underestimated the problem, said Jean-Claude Mbanya of Cameroon, incoming IDF president. If the current growth continues unchecked, the total number will exceed 435 million with diabetes by the year 2030.

The IDF released its world atlas showing prevalence by country in Montreal Monday. The data shows that diabetes is an epidemic that is out of control, Mbanya said.

"It costs the world almost 400 billion dollars - just to provide them with quality of life," Mbanya said in an interview later. "To put it in context, we have nearly 100 million people with AIDS. Why are people not interested in non-communicable diseases?" The IDF says that an estimated 4 million people die of diabetes complications every year, mostly from cardiovascular illnesses. "If you went to war and saw that people were dying, wouldn't the United Nations security council meet? This is a global emergency. People are dying and children don't have access to medicine."

According to the atlas, the disease affects mostly developing and low and middle-income countries. India has the highest number, with a current figure of 50.8 million, followed by China with 43.2 million, then the United States with 26.8 million.