What Is Type 5 Diabetes? The Rare Condition Affecting 25 Million People Worldwide

What Is Type 5 Diabetes?: Early in the year, during an international conference in India, the emergence of a new type of diabetes sweeping across numerous populations was observed. It arose mainly by malnutrition and therefore was proposed to be named type 5 diabetes. During the IDF World Diabetes Congress 2025, IDF President Professor Peter Schwarz announced the formation of a working group to develop an operational definition and guidelines regarding type 5 diabetes.

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What is type 5 diabetes?

As per the International Diabetes Federation, type 5 diabetes affects over 20 to 25 million people in the world, mainly in Africa and Asia. High insulin-deficient states and very poor metabolic control are the causes of type 5 diabetes, which affects lean and malnourished teenagers and young adults in low- and middle-income countries.

Unlike types I and II diabetes, type V is caused by chronic exposure to abrupt pullout of nutrients, especially in childhood and adolescence. “It is believed to stem from impaired pancreatic development due to long-term nutrient deficiencies,” wrote International Diabetes Federation on their official website.

Type 5 diabetes has been largely overlooked:

For the last 70 years, concerns regarding type 5 diabetes have hardly ever been entertained in global health discussions. Type 5 diabetes was reported for the first time mid-across-the-20th-century and has more often than not been misdiagnosed as type 1 or 2 diabetes. Even other previous theories indicated that type 5 diabetes could develop alternatively through insulin resistance.

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Signs of type 5 diabetes:

Insulin deficiency remains one causative factor for the development of type 5 diabetes. Type 5 diabetes patients aren't insulin resistant but may be insulin deficient. Medications taken orally with insulin injections manage their symptoms. "Given that type 5 diabetes is mostly found in low-resource settings, this cost-effective approach could prove important in regions already struggling to tackle the rising number of people living with the condition,” International Diabetes Federation explained.

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