Diabetes :: Juvenile diabetes vaccine trial commences

Children at risk of contracting juvenile diabetes may soon be vaccinated against the disease by administering insulin through a nasal spray device if a Melbourne-based clinical trial proves successful.

The Commonwealth Government, through the National Health and Medical Research Council has committed $5 million to the Intranasal Insulin Clinical Trial. The vaccine has been developed by the Diabetes Vaccine Development Centre at the University of Melbourne in partnership with the New York-based Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Three hundred children and young adults that have been assessed to be at high risk of developing Type 1 diabetes will be part of the trial. These participants will be identified by screening over 13,000 people aged between four and 30 who have a blood relative suffering from type 1 diabetes.

Children and young adults participating in the trial will self administer the intranasal spray every day for one week, and then every week for a year while attending regular hospital visits over a four-year period to determine if the onset of diabetes has been delayed or prevented.

The National Health Survey reports that around 13,000 people under the age of twenty-five are living with juvenile diabetes.

The Commonwealth Government has quadrupled health and medical research funding since 1996, this year committing over $500 million to health and medical research grants. Over $30.7 million was allocated through the National Health and Medical Research Council last year for diabetes related research.


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