'Staggering' diabetes bill forecast for taxpayers
A professor in Human Nutrition and Medicine says the latest nationwide snapshot of diabetes has left him dumbstruck. Each month, around 50 people lose a limb to the disease and New Zealand's current cost of treatment sits at $2.1 billion a year. A fresh PwC report, commissioned by Diabetes New Zealand, the Healthier Lives National Science Challenge, the University of Otago's Edgar Diabetes and Obesity Research Centre, and a private philanthropist, says things are set to get a lot worse. It claims the number of people with type 2 diabetes could rise by as much as 90 per cent across the next two decades - inflicting a "staggering" bill on taxpayers. Sally Murphy reports.