The number of diabetes patients in China has reached 114 million but almost two-thirds of those have not yet been diagnosed, leading medical experts warned on Tuesday, in the run-up to World Diabetes Day, which falls on Thursday.

Experts have urged people at risk of the disease, through factors including obesity, a family history of diabetes and elevated blood glucose levels discovered in regular physical examination to seek screening, as an early diagnosis and standard disease management can lead to a better prognosis.

"If someone very often feels tired, untimely thirst, has blurred vision, edema and foamy urine, or undergoes weight loss for no reason, he or she should not ignore them as such situations may be a warning signal for diabetes," said Zhu Dalong, director of the department of endocrinology of the Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Affiliated with the Nanjing University Medical School.

In Shanghai on Tuesday it was announced that China's leading diabetes experts and French pharmaceutical company Servier will initiate a project to focus on patients not yet diagnosed, and to urge those who are diagnosed to pay attention to the hidden risk of complications happening to their eyes, feet and kidneys.

"Free screening and clinical activities will be available at more than 100 community health centers, especially those in small and disadvantaged regions throughout the country, to help identify those invisible patients in the project," said Su Qing, director of the department of endocrinology of Xinhua Hospital Affiliated with the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, and one of the project's initiators. "We will also provide disease education onsite at grass-root communities and on the internet."

Experts say that so far, just one in four of diagnosed patients have accepted health education about the disease. Jiang Sunfang, director of general practice at Zhongshan Hospital Affiliated with Fudan University in Shanghai, said that general practitioners at community health centers can help patients to better control their condition in the long term through disease management approaches, including professional advice on physical sports, diet and blood glucose control.