Diabetes Awareness Week is observed every fourth week of July by virtue of Proclamation No. 213 signed on July 23, 1993, by former President Fidel Ramos.
With diabetes being one of the 10 leading causes of death in the country, the proclamation was aimed at addressing the need to educate people on the disease.
According to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), the Philippines ranks fifth in the Western Pacific — behind China, Indonesia, Japan and Thailand — in the number of diabetics. In the same IDF statistics, around 50,000 Filipinos died in 2017 due to diabetes-related complications like heart attack, stroke, and kidney and heart failure.
—Marielle Medina, Inquirer Research
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