Every week in the central San Joaquin Valley, at least 19 people die of diabetes — and the death toll is rising. The disease touches nearly one out of every 10 people who live in the Valley — compared to 1 in 13 throughout California. It steals eyesight, burns nerves, disables organs. And it kills.

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One developed the disease during a pregnancy 36 years ago. Another almost lost a foot to a bacterial infection. And another is on dialysis three times a week. These are some of the faces of diabetics in the Valley.

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Programs such as a diabetes registry could help bring the epidemic under control, health experts say. But the high cost of expanding programs has been a barrier. The very scope of the problem is daunting.

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A searchable database compiles statistics from 2002 to 2006. Search by city or county, and by population type. Causes of death range from heart disease to diabetes to suicide.

For every $5 spent on health care in the United States, $1 goes to diabetics. In 2007, the estimated national cost of diabetes was $174 billion. A look at some of the numbers:

• Care for diabetics: $27 billion
• Care for complications of diabetes: $58 billion
• Other diabetic-related costs: $31 billion
• Economic effect of reduced productivity due to diabetes: $58 billion
• Days of work lost: 15 million
• Cases of unemployment disability due to diabetes: 445,000
• Days of diabetes-related hospitalization: 24.3 million
• Average cost of a one-day hospital stay due to diabetes: $1,853
• Average cost including complications: $2,281