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With each day that goes by more and more people are coming together to fight diabetes, which affects around 30 million people in the United States alone.  There has been a concerted effort to get information out to the public through doctors, through hospitals, through clinics and through community efforts.  This is not just happening in the United States.  Countries throughout the world are communicating and coming together to work in tandem toward solving the problem world wide.

In Belgium, on October 20th The Johnson & Johnson Diabetes Institute brought global and local diabetes and public health leaders together to launch a new organization called Diabetes HOW(TM): Helping Our World.  HOW is an international coalition dedicated to identifying successful community-based solutions to improve diabetes care and work toward diabetes prevention.  Once these goals are achieved, HOW will replicate them in communities throughout the world.
More than 25 health leaders from 12 countries participated in the two-day Diabetes HOW(TM) Summit.  They worked to establish guiding principles for the coalition; to share model programs and ideas for promoting healthy eating, exercise and other diabetes prevention strategies; and to help ensure support and access to care for the world’s 240 million people living with diabetes.
The coalition will start by working on programs for children who have diabetes or who are at risk for diabetes. The International Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes (ISPAD) is joining as the Coalition’s inaugural member organization. Summit participants will include representatives of public health organizations and patient advocacy programs. 
Some of the main topics will be addressing issues brought on by the increasing problems with the economy world wide.  Other topics will include how the difficult economy has – and probably will continue to – cut coverage for doctor visits, medication and other treatment.  Some of the countries are in an impossible situation because they are involved in efforts to help keep diabetes under control or avoid having their citizens get diabetes altogether. 
It is extremely frustrating to be in a position to combat an illness as serious as diabetes but not have the proper tools to do so.  The Diabetes HOW coalition will do everything possible to help with diabetes diagnosis, care, treatment and control wherever it exists.