The Netherlands is on the verge of a diabetes explosion, with the number of patients set to surge to 1.3 million within 10 to 15 years, the Telegraaf reports on Tuesday.

The Netherlands has a population of just under 17 million.
The paper bases its claims on figures from the national health institute RIVM. ‘It is going to be a gigantic problem,’ the paper quotes RIVM spokesman Harald Wychgel as saying.
In 2007, family doctors had some 740,000 diabetes patients on their books, and an estimated 250,000 people were thought to be unaware they had the condition.
The RIVM says diabetes is on the increase because more people are overweight and taking less exercise.