Diabetes treatment

About 43 million people live in the Republic of South Africa. Approximately 80% of these receive government-sponsored medical care, and 20% receive medical care in the private sector – paid for either by themselves or by medical insurance schemes. The costs of diabetes management are considerable, both for the person with the condition and the health-care provider. These costs relate to the management of the condition and the treatment of short- and long-term diabetes

When she was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at the age of 12 years, Silvia Iancu began a long and at times frightening voyage through care. At the time, she lived with her family under the constraints of the difficult regime in Romania; her parents' reaction to the diagnosis was one of fear and desperation. Given the hardships of life under the dictatorship, her parents did not know whether they would be able to provide the insulin and other diabetes supplies that Silvia would need to survive the condition.

Diabetes is classified into two major types: Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes, and Type 2 diabetes. However, it is apparent that there are some forms of the condition which do not fit comfortably into these categories. Indeed, there is one form of diabetes which appears to straddle the two major types. While it appears to affect adults with Type 2 diabetes, it shows many of the genetic, immune, and metabolic features of Type 1 diabetes, and carries a high risk of progression to insulin dependency. This form of the condition is known as 'latent autoimmune diabetes in adults' (LADA).

Editor-in-Chief's editorial