A study published on Saturday revealed that the number of patients expected to suffer from type 1 diabetes will double by the year 2040 from 8.4 million to 17.4 million people.
Researchers of Type 1 diabetes point out that the disease is underrepresented, and that data tracking it is most often collected in North America and Europe. The research also helps to dispel certain myths that persist regarding its diagnosis, due its onset frequently occurring during childhood, which led to it initially being referred to as “juvenile diabetes,” as a majority (64%) of those diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, according to the study, were between the ages of 20 and 59 years old, and just 18% were under the age of 20.
Type 1 diabetes, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, means that the person’s body is unable to produce, or produces very low levels of insulin. Insulin is a hormone produced in the pancreas which helps blood sugar get into a person’s cells. The symptoms of Type 1 diabetes, which is less common than type 2 diabetes, includes an increase in thirst, frequent urination, weight loss, exhaustion, irritability and mood changes.
In fact, Type 1 diabetes was a death sentence about 90 years ago. According to Howard E. LeWine, the Chief Medical Editor at Harvard Health Publishing, half of those who developed Type 1 diabetes died within two years of being diagnosed, and more than 90% were dead within five years. But insulin treatments, which were created in 1922, helps those with Type 1 diabetes live until 50 years old or older.
Children, however, remain vulnerable to the disease, and are still at a greater risk of death from Type 1 diabetes. A ten-year-old who lives in a low-income country and is diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes has a life expectancy of just 13 years, compared to 61 years if they live in a high-income country.
But the most common cause of death for those under the age of 25 with type 1 diabetes, according to the researchers, is not seeking treatment because they are undiagnosed. That conclusion is based on an estimate of about 175,000 people worldwide who died from type 1 diabetes in 2021, with the researchers believing that 63% to 70% of the deaths among those younger than 25 occurred because the person was undiagnosed.
“Given that prevalence of people with T1D is projected to increase in all countries to up to 17.5 million cases in 2040, our results provide a warning for substantial negative implications for societies and healthcare systems. There is an opportunity to save millions of lives in the coming decades by raising the standard of care for T1D (including ensuring universal access to insulin and other essential supplies) and increasing awareness of the signs and symptoms of T1D to enable a 100% rate of diagnosis in all countries,” said Graham Ogle, a University of Sydney Medical School researcher and one of the study’s co-authors, in a news release.
The costs of Insulin treatments have increased drastically over the past two decades. In 1999, one vial of Humalog cost $21, with the price of the same vial rising to $332 in 2019. And the United States has a particularly fraught issue with the cost of insulin. The U.S. charges 10 times more for insulin compared to any other high-income country.
Insulin, however, does not fit the standards posed by pharmaceutical companies which usually justify a drug treatment cost, such as cost of production and inflation. While the cost of insulin in the U.S. has risen, it has virtually stayed the same in other developed countries.