Diabetes mellitus (also known as diabetes) is a group of metabolic diseases in which a person has high blood sugar. There are three main types of diabetes including Type 1 diabetes (resulting from the failure of the body to produce insulin), Type 2 diabetes (caused by the inability of the cells to use insulin properly) and Gestational diabetes (when a pregnant woman develops high blood glucose level during their pregnancy). There are several other types of diabetes including congenital diabetes, cystic fibrosis-related diabetes, steroid diabetes and several forms of monogenic diabetes.

Management of the disease is critically important so that the patient avoids complications such as hypoglycemia, diabetic ketoacidosis, cardiovascular disease, chronic renal failure or retinal damage. Adequate treatment of diabetes is thus important, as well as blood pressure control and lifestyle factors such as smoking cessation and maintaining a healthy body weight.