Bush Admin: Diabetes Research Not Necessary

[berni_mccoy]

Bush's latest budget proposal would leave those who are at risk from and who have diabetes to fend for themselves. At a time when science is so close to a cure, EVERY DAY, EVERY WEEK, EVERY MONTH, EVERY YEAR, EVERY DOLLAR MATTERS for those whose lives are SHORTENED AN AVERAGE OF 15-20 years due to complications that result from the disease.

This will be the second cut to funding Diabetes Research in TWO YEARS.

I have a personal stake in this: my son was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes last year.

The American Diabetes Association Responds to the Bush Administration (http://www.diabetes.org/diabetesnewsarticle.jsp?storyId=11421339&filename=20060207/ADA200602071139319970945EDIT.xml):

Alexandria, VA (February 6, 2006) ? The President, Medicine & Science, American Diabetes Association, Robert A. Rizza, MD of the Mayo Clinic and Foundation, issued the following statement in response to the Bush Administration's proposed budget, announced today, which would cut diabetes research and prevention at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Under the Administration's budget proposal, funding for the National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) ? an NIH research division ? would be funded at $11 million less than last year. Additionally, funding for chronic disease prevention at the CDC would be funded at $819 million, a $20 million reduction from last year. This would dramatically weaken the efforts of the CDC's Division of Diabetes Translation, which runs state-based Diabetes Prevention and Control Programs that help those suffering from diabetes better control and manage the disease and help those at risk prevent or delay its onset.
(snip)
Diabetes is one of this nation's most prevalent, debilitating, deadly and costly diseases. The CDC recently estimated that 20.8 million Americans live with diabetes, meaning that there are approximately 47,816 people living with diabetes in every Congressional District. One in three Americans ? and one in two minorities ? born in 2000 will develop diabetes in their lifetime, according to the CDC. The cost of diabetes in America in 2002 was at least $132 billion.

FUGWB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!