Jan. 22, 2019

Most medical professionals agree that type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease, and more often than ever before we see patients in their 40’s to their late 60’s who are newly diagnosed with insulin requiring diabetes. These patients are classified as having type 2 diabetes because of characteristics such as age, BMI, insulin use and the like.

The question is: do they really have type 2 diabetes, or do they actually have type 1 diabetes–people who had an extremely late bout of an autoimmune disease?

This week in part 4 four of our Clinical Text on the Immunopathogenesis of Type 1 Diabetes in Western Society, we look how genetics and viruses may be a major factor in the increase in late onset of type 1 diabetes.

Dave Joffe

Editor-in-chief