Can The US Really Cut Health Care Spending? A new study suggests that while health care is one of the strongest sectors of the ailing US economy, achieving a substantial, sustainable reduction is US health care spending is not probable.

With a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicting that diabetic retinopathy will triple from 5.5 million in 2005 to 16 million in 2050, improved treatments are urgently needed for this leading cause of blindness in working-age people. The CDC study is the latest indicator of a world-wide diabetes epidemic that is motivating ophthalmic research around the globe.

Just days after the first retinal cell gets infected with the common cytomegalovirus, contiguous cells start committing suicide and researchers believe their death may provide clues to better treatment of this potentially blinding infection. Understanding the cell death may also provide new insight into the larger issue of how the retina responds to assault, whether by infection or a disease process such as diabetes, said Dr.