Word: patients
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...necessary to break down sugars found in food. (In Type 2, or adult-onset, diabetes the pancreas continues to make insulin, but the body fails to respond properly to the hormone's signals.) While it is not yet clear what causes Type 1 diabetes, some experts believe that a patient's own immune system starts to attack insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, ultimately leading to a drop-off in hormone production. (Watch TIME's video "Uninsured Again...
...proper management of blood-sugar levels, say experts, can keep many diabetes-related complications at bay. Today, patients can choose from among 20 highly effective types of insulin, some man-made and some derived from animals. One synthetic product called pramlintide, which was recently approved by the FDA, appears to control blood-sugar levels more naturally, without the huge dips in glucose that can occur when the body receives too much insulin at one time. The more successful a patient is at maintaining consistently normal blood-sugar levels, the more likely she will be able to avoid damage...
...Noah was an early patient of Lovaas', yet the success that Lovaas would have with some of the autistic children he worked with eluded Noah, who remained among the lowest-functioning cohort - nonverbal, unable to dress himself, not toilet-trained until he was 5. Lovaas soon told my parents that he had gone as far as he could with Noah, that he was now focusing on younger children. (I have since heard of numerous children who also, as one parent I know put it, "flunked" Lovaas.) It was an early disappointment but only a precursor of so many to follow...
That may help explain why the global response feels a bit disjointed. Different countries have different ways of keeping up with an evolving epidemic: while the Hong Kong government has been quarantining for 10 days everyone who has been in contact with a confirmed flu patient, local governments in the U.S. are still debating whether schools with infections should close. Meanwhile, drug companies say they could produce nearly 5 billion doses of H1N1 vaccine in a year, if pressed - but there's still no decision yet on whether to go forward, or exactly how the vaccine might be distributed...
...issue is a complicated one, and resolution will not come easily or quickly, but policymakers and clinicians agree that increasing patient safety is the ultimate goal. "The key is that we don't want to injure patients," Johns says. "What can we do to make sure that even if [physicians are] fatigued, they can still perform at 100%? Let's do that study...