I am often guilty of diabetes isolationism. I tend to think about diabetes within a United States vacuum. But diabetes is a worldwide disease. The World Health Organization website identified the worldwide prevalence of diabetes at 171 million in 2000, and projects this number will rise to 366 million in 2030. Unfortunately, diabetes treatment and education is severely lacking in developing countries.

Mexico is one developing country where the public health system is failing the disease. Diabetes is the leading cause of death in Mexico, with 138 deaths per 100,000 adults aged 20 to 84 in 2000. That compares to 82 deaths in 100,000 here in the United States. Mexico also has one of the world's highest prevalence rates -- 10.7 percent of adults 20 to 69 have diabetes.

Half the population in Mexico is medically uninsured. That statistic blew me away. Many Mexican families are unable to afford the most basic tools to manage the disease such as blood glucose meters, lancets, blood test strips, syringes and cotton swabs. Chronic hyperglycemia results in extensive complications such as nerve damage or vision loss. Families become more impoverished as their loved one with diabetes cannot work.

There are heroes fighting the disease. Dr. Marco Reynosa, an internist with the government-run Dario Fernandez Fierro General Hospital, has been counseling working-class diabetics for 23 years. He runs educational courses and fairs for diabetics at the hospital, receiving no resources or extra pay. He convinces Mexicans with diabetes to invest in blood sugar meters and keep daily blood sugar charts to keep the disease in check. But heroes will not solve the crisis in Mexico, the government has to step forward.

Alberto Barcelo, with the Pan-American Health Organization, stated Mexico is making efforts to improve diabetes care and education. Yet a director with the Mexican Diabetes Federation stated fewer than 10 percent of Mexican diabetics receive self-management education, partly due to lack of awareness of resources and plain indifference.

Read the full story in the New York Times.