As always, the beds at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx were filled with a universe of afflictions. In truth, these assorted burdens were all the work of a single illness: diabetes <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/diabetes/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier>. Room after room, floor after floor, diabetes. On any given day, hospital officials say, nearly half the patients are there for some trouble precipitated by the disease.
An estimated 800,000 adult New Yorkers - more than one in every eight - now have diabetes, and city health officials describe the problem as a bona fide epidemic <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/epidemics/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier>. Diabetes is the only major disease in the city that is growing, both in the number of new cases and the number of people it kills. And it is growing quickly, even as other scourges like heart disease <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/heartdisease/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier> and cancers are stable or in decline.[snip]
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/09/nyregion/nyregionspecial5/09diabetes.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5094&en=ca11a007f48e1986&hp&ex=1136782800&partner=homepage -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <../attachments/20060108/09980366/attachment.htm>