This page last updated March 1, 1999
Diabetes is a very serious disease which affects an estimated 16 million Americans. It is the fourth leading cause of disease in the United States, killing an estimated 170,000 annually. Complications from diabetes can be severe. It is a leading cause of heart disease, stroke, amputations, blindness, and kidney disease. One third of all dialysis patients have diabetes-caused kidney failure. Neuropathy, disease of the nervous system, affects 90 percent of people with long-term diabetes and is a major causes of lower extremity amputations. Diabetic patients account for more than half of the leg amputations in the United States. The comprehensive U.S. national cost of diabetes - including hospital, nursing home, and physician care, laboratory tests, pharmaceutical products, and patient workdays lost because of disability and premature death - exceeds $130 billion each year. In spite of the seriousness of this disease, only 3% of the money which the United States Goverment spends on medical research goes towards diabetes research, a figure which seems far too low.
To learn more about diabetes, visit these fine web sites:
Diabetes related statistics:
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
Efforts to find a cure for diabetes:
Juvenile Diabetes Foundation
American Diabetes Association
Your questions about diabetes answered:
Children with Diabetes
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