Diabetes Tsunami Striking Across USA
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 18.2 million people with diabetes in 2002, and 5.2 million, it was estimated, didn’t know they had the disease.
The 2005 statistics show an alarming trend: 20.8 million have the disease, and 6.2 million of these are undiagnosed cases.
Diabetes is the leading cause of blindness, end-stage renal (kidney) disease, nervous system damage and nontraumatic amputations.
The American Diabetes Association said the disease costs the U.S. economy $132 billion annually in loss productivity and treatment.
Congress unfortunately cut the budgets of the National Institutes of Health and the CDC, not just in diabetes research but across the board. Next year’s budget presents more cuts, not by a lot, but a 1999 report by the Diabetes Research Working Group predicted that federal spending on diabetes should hit $1.6 billion annually by 2004. It is 2006 and the funding has yet to meet that level. The report said diabetes should be a “top priority” when it comes to money at the NIH.
