DAR ES SALAAM, April 23 (Xinhua) -- The government of Tanzania said on Monday it has set aside 800,000 U.S. dollars to buy insulin drugs for treating diabetes as the number of diabetic patients was on the increase.

The east African nation's Deputy Minister for Health, Faustine Ndugulile, told the National Assembly in the capital Dodoma that at least 13 percent of Tanzanians were suffering from diabetes.

"The rate of children suffering from diabetes is also rising," Ndugulile told the august House, attributing the increase of diabetes and other communicable diseases to poor lifestyles.

"As the government is working hard dealing with the disease which until now has no cure, people are reminded to change their lifestyles such as poor eating habits, excessive drinking of alcohol and smoking cigarettes that lead to increased infections," said the official.

Ndugulile said the rate of prevalence of diabetes has doubled compared to the situation in the last ten years.

"People living in urban areas are mostly at risk of the deadly disease as opposed to those living in rural areas," he said.