The number of adults estimated to be living with diabetes surged to 422 million by 2014, a nearly four-fold increase on 1980 figures, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday, in its first-ever global report on the disease. The disease directly caused 1.5 million deaths in 2012, but elevated blood glucose levels linked to diabetes were responsible for an additional 2.2 million deaths that year, the report said. Diabetes is divided into two types.