The new diabetes breakthroughs that could change lives, and a type 1 sufferer on what it would mean to him
- Recent breakthroughs are allowing doctors to understand type 1 diabetes better than ever, and pharmaceutical companies are betting big on a cure
- Sufferer Simon O’Reilly talks about his experience with the disease and the difference these breakthroughs could make to him
Today, 425 million people live with diabetes worldwide – about 1 in every 11 adults – according to the International Diabetes Federation, and that number is set to balloon.
By 2045, the number is expected to be almost 630 million, a rise of close to 50 per cent and roughly six times the 108 million estimated by the World Health Organisation to have diabetes in 1980. And every year, the average age for being diagnosed with diabetes gets younger.
These numbers are daunting, not just for people living with diabetes, but for health care professionals struggling to treat the condition, which 46 per cent of sufferers don’t even know they have.
It can be especially discouraging for suffers of the rarer, more mysterious, type one diabetes (T1D), previously called “juvenile diabetes”, since most people are diagnosed in their youth, at an average age of 14 years.
But recent breakthroughs and lucrative new funding streams for research are giving doctors and T1D diabetics hope which, until recently, had been in short supply.
Simon O’Reilly is a production editor for SCMP.com and has been living with T1D for 23 years. He describes how he first learned of his affliction.