Posted by Sue Huson on May 01, 1998 at 18:46:36:
In Reply to: Re: Treatment or Cure ? It's all in the name. posted by Sandra Silvestri on May 01, 1998 at 00:17:11:
Sandra,
The researchers are at the Robarts Research Institute, London, Ontario. The doctors involved in the research I mentioned above are Bhagirath Singh and Tony Jevnikar.
Terry Delovitch also works at the same "Center of Excellence". According to the article, "Delovitch has found that by injecting pre-diabetic mice with the growth factor Interleukin-4, the incidence of diabetes is reduced to between 10 and 20 per cent from 80 per cent. He believes such injections may be an effective treatment that could prevent diabetes in children with a predisposition to the disese."
This vaccine seems to have such limited potential that I find it difficult to understand why so much money is being put into it. Many of us didn't know we were predisposed to the disease until we got it. For a family that already has someone with diabetes, it could offer some hope. However, since Delovitch says it will be 20 years before this is perfected, the earliest it would affect my offspring would be my great-grandchildren. And even then there still exists a 10 to 20 percent chance of them getting diabetes.
Whenever I look at research, my questions are always, how practical is this, and how quickly can it benefit a large number of people. I'm sure the doctors at the Robarts Institute would argue that wonderful information is being gathered that will some day benefit somebody somewhere. I think that with all the millions spent, there should be something by now to benefit those of us living today.