Stark figures were published last week by Diabetes UK. The charity predicts that, without significant government action, up to 5.5m people in the UK could be living with diabetes by 2030. In other words, as many as one in 10 UK adults could be suffering from the condition within a decade. Additional analysis shows that up to 17 million people in the UK (roughly one in three people) are likely to be obese and therefore have an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 2030. Quite reasonably, the charity calls for a commitment from the governments of the UK to urgently invest in diabetes care and prevention.
ECPs are, surely, key here and it is about time the government recognised this. Not only are we able to screen eyes for signs of manifest diabetic disease, but we see people on a regular basis, so are in a good position to offer appropriate advice about preventative measures. This might be something as simple as guiding patients towards the online NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme (accessible at: www.england.nhs.uk/diabetes), something launched back in 2016 but of which too few are aware.
On a different note, it would have been good to see this year’s Nobel Prize for Medicine shared between Catherine Green and Sarah Gilbert, and Özlem Türeci and her husband Uğur Şahin. Ah well, if it must be men, then you could do worse than David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian for their explanation of the molecular basis for sensing heat, cold and mechanical forces. Perhaps the spotlight may now move to the, in my view, under-rated work of Professor Russell Foster and light reception.
Finally, many of you showed appreciation for our weekly Covid pages last year. One key reference source throughout was Professor David Spiegelhalter. I cannot recommend enough his new book; Covid by Numbers. It cuts through the nonsense admirably.