More Diabetes Danger

The New York Times has a story today about the government cutting funding for diabetes research at a time when death rates from diabetes are rising. No other major disease has rising death rates, and researchers say diabetes has always been underfunded, according to the paper.

“The number of Type 2 diabetics in the United States has doubled in the past two decades, to an estimated 20 million, when undiagnosed cases are included, making the disease the country’s fastest-growing public health problem. Epidemiologists predict that one in three American children born in 2000 will join the ranks of those afflicted with Type 2.”

The government has earmarked $1.1 billion to the National Institutes of Health to study diabetes next year, less than a quarter of what is spent on cancer research and down more than a million dollars from last year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also has a budget for diabetes of around $63 million, of which around $700,000 may be cut next year.

The New York Times has gotten a little diabetes happy this year, writing all sorts of stories about this disease that has blossomed along with the obesity epidemic in America. About 95 percent of people with diabetes have Type 2, which is linked to being overweight and inactive. It’s good that someone is paying attention to this disease, because if there isn’t a huge public health surge in terms of prevention, in the next generation there really will be a crisis as the nation has to deal with workers who are blind and have lost limbs because of diabetes.