National Diabetes Month prompts more education, funding, awareness

Dennis Morales was diagnosed with diabetes when
he was 9.

“I didn’t understand the disease at all when I got
it,” said Morales, a 20-year-old economics major. “All
I knew was that they were keeping me in a hospital
for about a week.”

Diabetes is a result of high levels of blood glucose,
which occurs because of a lack of insulin production.
November is National Diabetes Month, and in
Virginia, public health resources including Virginia
Diabetes Prevention and Control Project are working
to raise awareness about the fifth-deadliest disease in
the United States.

“The number of people with diabetes in Virginia has
grown, but the budget hasn’t,” said Ann Forburger,
director of Virginia Diabetes Prevention and Control
Project. “Right now, we don’t receive any money from
the state. All of the money we receive comes from
federal dollars.”

To increase funding, Congress has to approve
more funding for the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention.

Forburger said Virginia DCDP has to partner with
other organizations or groups to try to tend to the
needs of the more than 500,000 diagnosed and nondiagnosed
Virginians living with diabetes.

Virginia DPCP was created in 1993 and is housed
in the Division of Chronic Disease Prevention and
Control within the Virginia Department of Health.

According to its Web site, the mission of the program
is to reduce the number of deaths caused by diabetes,
reduce the number of disabilities and complications
associated with diabetes and to reduce the economic
cost of diabetes.

By dividing the number of people living with
diabetes in Virginia by the amount of federal money
the state acquires each year, Forburger found that
diabetic residents receive less than $1 per person
per year.

Proper treatment of diabetes can be very expensive.

Morales said he spends about $115 every two
months for insulin, $60 every two months for test
strips and about $300 every three months for supplies
for his insulin pump.

“A diabetic could not properly treat their condition
without insurance because there would be no way to
afford all of the treatments,” Morales said.

He pays the 20 percent co-pay of his insurance plan.
This means that for six months he spends $1,125 for
his treatment while his insurance pays $4,500.

Morales said diabetes changed his spending, lifestyle
and eating habits.

“I had to learn to stick to a diet,” he said. “It wasn’t
too strict, but basically everything I ate had to be in
moderation, and there were some things that I just had
to avoid all together. Otherwise, I would feel ill.”

This month, Virginia DPCP aims to ensure people
with diabetes get their flu shots, despite a common
misconception that getting the flu shot makes people
more likely to catch the flu, Forburger said.

“We encourage everyone with diabetes to get their
flu shot,” Forburger said.

But for those with diabetes, she said, the immune
system is naturally weaker.

“I got my flu shot,” Morales said. “I have to eat at
certain times in order to keep my blood sugar at a
normal level. If I got the flu, I would probably lose my
appetite, and if I did eat anything, there is a good
chance that it would just come right back up before
I could digest it.”

There are still many misconceptions when it comes to
understanding diabetes, Forburger said.

“There is still a need for lots of education,” she said.

Diabetes is associated with a number of other serious
complications: heart disease and stroke, high blood pressure,
blindness, kidney disease, nervous system disease, amputations
and many others. According to the American Diabetes
Association, most people aren’t diagnosed with diabetes until
other complications occur.

The ADA predicts one in three Americans and one in
two minorities born after 2000 will develop diabetes in their
lifetime.

VCU student Karey Morgan is a medical assistant at a hospital
that specializes in treating patients with diabetes. At Diabetes,
Endocrine and Internal Medicine Associates, Morgan said, she
has seen patients struggling to control the disease.

“We’ve had patients who have had blood sugars so low
that they have passed out in our office and had to be taken
to the hospital,” Morgan said.

Patients with high blood sugars are usually treated with
insulin and diet control, Morgan said.

“Before I started working here I didn’t think diabetes was
a really serious disease, but now that I’ve been around it
and seen what it does to a person’s body, it really is scary,”
Morgan said.