Drive to eliminate the burden of type 1 diabetes.

摘要

The individual with type 1 diabetes, whether child or adult, faces a lifetime of inconvenience and restraint, which results from the perpetual need to juggle insulin dose, diet, and exercise. The task of managing the disease-ie, striving to maintain a near-normal blood-sugar concentration to reduce the threat of long-term complications while avoiding the short-term disaster of disabling hypoglycaemia-is hard enough, but it is one that must be tackled while the patient is also trying to live a more or less normal life.The incidence of type 1 diabetes is rising by 3% per year, and at present more than 90 000 children are affected in Europe alone. No cure is available, and although one day we might be able to prevent diabetes, the main focus of much academic, clinical, and commercial effort currently centres on protecting, or improving, secretion of endogenous insulin in people who have, or who are in the process of developing the disease. Such effort involves work on many different fronts: identificationof individuals at risk, protection of the failing P cell, and islet-cell replacement. To be most effective, this work must be coordinated.