Diabetes Reaches Record Levels in U.S.

WASHINGTON —  More Americans than ever before are afflicted with diabetes, with the most dramatic increases in recent years occurring among African Americans, the federal government reported Thursday.

An estimated 15.7 million people--nearly 6% of the U.S. population--have the disease, with an average of 798,000 new cases being diagnosed annually, according to the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC said steady increases in the disease have been seen between 1980 and 1994, with a jump of 33% among African Americans during those years. The increase for whites was 11% during that period, according to the agency, which released the statistics in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports.

Other minority populations, including Native Americans, also suffer disproportionately from the disease, the CDC said.

“These data estimate the number of Americans who have diabetes. However, diabetes is a disease that often goes undiagnosed,” said CDC Director David Satcher, who is President Clinton’s nominee for surgeon general-assistant secretary for Health at the Department of Health and Human Services. “Millions of Americans with diabetes do not know they have the disease.”

The CDC estimates that about a third of the 15.7 million Americans with diabetes, or 5.4 million, have not been diagnosed.

Diabetes is a potentially serious disease that can result in major and life-threatening complications, such as heart disease, blindness and stroke. It is caused by the body’s inability to produce proper amounts of insulin to regulate the storage and use of sugar in the blood.

Type I diabetes, formerly known as insulin-dependent or juvenile-onset diabetes, occurs when the body does not produce any insulin at all. It most often develops in children and young adults. It accounts for 5% to 10% of cases and requires regular insulin injections two to four times daily.

Type II diabetes, which accounts for more than 90% of all cases, is associated with aging, race, ethnicity and a family history of the disease. It results in the production of abnormal levels of insulin and is strongly associated with obesity, diet and physical inactivity. It is most often treated with diet and drugs to stimulate the body to produce correct amounts of insulin.

“We are a country of older, fatter and less physically active people,” said Dr. Gerald Bernstein, president-elect of the American Diabetes Assn., in explaining the reasons for the disturbing trend. “We need to get people moving again and eating right again.”

The CDC said the disease currently afflicts 11.3 million non-Latino whites, 2.3 million African Americans and 1.2 million Mexican Americans.

Other Latino Americans are almost twice as likely to have the disease as non-Latino whites, although the current data are insufficient for a more specific estimate, the CDC said.

The rates for Native Americans vary among tribes and communities, ranging from 5% to 50%, the CDC said.

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The Clinton administration pointed to three new diabetes initiatives launched earlier this year after enactment of legislation intended to balance the federal budget, including expanded Medicare coverage for treatment of the disease, an additional $150 million over five years for Type I diabetes research and an additional $150 million over five years for expanded research targeting prevention and treatment of diabetes among Native Americans.

HHS Secretary Donna Shalala called the prevention, diagnosis and control of the disease “a serious health challenge for our country, and especially for many minority populations.”