Scientific suicide: Breakthrough diabetes treatment raises global health concerns amidst US-China tensions

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SHAH ALAM - In the United States (US), 90 to 95 per cent of diabetes cases are type 2 diabetes, making it the eighth leading cause of death in the country, down one rank since 2019.

According to international nonprofit media and educational organisation BreakThrough News, globally, diabetes affects 422 million people and has led to 1.5 million deaths.

Type 2 diabetes is often triggered by factors like excess body fat, high blood pressure, genetic predisposition and aging.

When sugar intake is not regulated, the body might struggle to produce adequate insulin to process the excess sugar in the pancreas.

It can also be due to iinternal factors such as insulin resistance, where the body fails to use insulin effectively despite producing it at normal levels.

Despite its top global ranking in prestigious educational and laboratory processes for public health, the US has failed to adequately address the widespread impact and urgency of finding cures for type 2 diabetes, often focusing instead on narratives of power and attempting to undermine China, the report said.

This was despite China's recent achievement in developing the first cure for type 2 diabetes, which should be a significant focus of attention.

In a report by BreakThrough News, a Chinese research team recently discovered a way to treat diabetes using stem cell-derived islet tissues.

They conducted an experiment on a 59-year-old man who had type 2 diabetes for over 25 years.

The treatment involved an insulin shot containing the cell, considered a stem cell transplant, using personalised endoderm stem cell-derived islet tissues.

Eleven weeks later, the man no longer needed insulin shots and was considered completely cured of his disease.

The procedure involved taking the patient's blood cells and matching them with extracted unassigned stem cells.

These stem cells would then regenerate the patient's diabetic pancreas by mimicking healthy pancreatic cells and multiplying.

In short, scientists used the patient's blood to find compatible stem cells, which were then transplanted to replace the damaged or dysfunctional pancreatic tissue.

China was seen as being on a fast track to curing diabetes with its successful cell therapy (CT) procedure, a field the US has also been working on.

Recently, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved CT.

Questions arose when the Joe Biden (US president) administration decided to block US scientists from collaborating with Chinese laboratories, planning to pass this law soon.

The power-driven US was worried that China might overtake its economy by 2030, especially with China's recent successes, such as discovering a type 2 diabetes cure.

In response, the US has launched several measures against China, including sanctions and tariffs and has surrounded China with US military bases equipped with long-range missiles.

A recent development was the Biosecure Act, a bipartisan bill designed to halt business dealings between the US and four Chinese medical firms, including Chinese pharmaceutical producer WuXi which currently works with 19 of the 20 largest US pharmaceutical companies, such as Vertex and has been working diligently to develop a cure for type 1 diabetes.

The strained China-US relations led to challenges like finding alternative suppliers.

This situation sparked questions among Americans about the nature of their politics.

Although diabetes was now curable, a few policymakers have blocked the cure, prioritising power over public well-being.

It was reported that this has resulted in wasted billions and the potential for conflict, causing people to doubt their political system's judgment.

Historically, the US has also banned a Cuban treatment for diabetic foot ulcers which was reported in 2022, which could also save patients from amputation.

For the same reason of retaining power, the US imposed a 60-year blockade on Cuba, preventing medical cooperation, BreakThrough News reported.

This was not surprising, given that the US has also been openly supplying arms to Israel in its attacks against Palestine, resulting in countless innocent lives lost.

It also opened the view that medicine was used for profit, rather than for its true purpose, including the lifesaver Chinese insulin.

The price of insulin has been increased by 5,000 per cent.

For example, a common vial of insulin that costs around US$10 to produce was sold for US$300 in the drug market.

Currently, the US invested more money in the pharmaceutical industry than any other country.

Despite this massive spending, the blocking of a type 2 diabetes cure highlighted how profit was being prioritised over public health.

This situation also raised concerns about potential bribery, which was illegal in the US.

The tension and delinking created by the US to China had created absurd expectations of the people in order to believe that war was not that bad, when it was.

This was what the US has been promoting for China if it continued to progress better than the country.

Despite the ongoing issues between China and the US, the recent move to block assistance from Chinese laboratories, which British daily newspaper The Guardian described as "scientific suicide" raised many concerns about the future of both countries.

This decision puts people's lives at risk and leaves many questions unanswered.