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British doctors claim that they have a cure for Type 1 diabetes. It involves transplanting pancreatic cells from a donor to the Diabetic patient. According to the American Diabetes Association, 43% of new cases of End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) can be attributed to Diabetes and that percentage is increasing more rapidly than other diseases. Other interesting Diabetes facts from the Association:
- In the United States, the incidence of reported ESRD in people with diabetes is more than 4 times as high in African Americans, 4 to 6 times as high in Mexican Americans and 6 times as high in Native Americans than in the general population of diabetes patients.
- The risk of ESRD is 12 times as high in people with type 1 diabetes as in those with type 2 diabetes.
- In patients with type 1 diabetes who develop persistent proteinuria, ESRD or death usually follows after about 5-10 years.
A cure for diabetes greatly reduces the need for kidney transplantation. According to UNOS, there were 27,306 people added to the waiting list for kidney transplants in 2004. If this cure removes 43% of those who had diabetes, that leaves 15,564 new additions to the waiting list. In 2004, there were 15,977 kidney transplants performed. There are currently over 60,000 people waiting for a kidney transplant, so we would still need to increase organ donation to get rid of the backlog.
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