World Diabetes Day (14 November): Caring for children and adolescents with diabetes

The theme of this year’s World Diabetes Day (14 November) is ‘diabetes in children and adolescents’. The global awareness campaign aims to

• Bring the spot light on diabetes and

• Highlight the message that no child should die of diabetes.

• I increase awareness in parents, caregivers, teachers, health care professionals, politicians and the common public regarding diabetes.

World Diabetes Day (www.worlddiabetesday.org) is observed every year on November 14. This day marks the birthday of Frederick Banting, who was credited with discovering insulin some 87 years ago. This day was first introduced in 1991 by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and the World Health Organization (WHO), in response to the alarming rise in diabetes around the world. In 2007, the United Nations made the day an official UN world day after the passage of the United Nations World Diabetes Day Resolution, in December 2006. The UN recognized that diabetes is increasing at an epidemic rate and is affecting people of all ages, from all parts of the globe..

Diabetes is one of the most common chronic conditions to affect children. It can strike children of any age - even toddlers and babies. If not detected early enough in a child, diabetes can be fatal or it may result in serious brain damage. Yet diabetes in a child is often completely overlooked: it is often misdiagnosed as the flu or is not diagnosed at all.

In both urban and rural areas, diabetes in children and adolescents often does not get diagnosed in time. The reasons for this are manifold - lack of education / awareness of the symptoms of this condition, lack of proper care, girl child stigma and poverty.

"Early diagnosis of diabetes in children is very poor in rural areas and some of them die because of it, in the absence of timely diagnosis and /or treatment, which is pretty shameful for us. Therefore the government should strengthen its rural healthcare services for early diagnosis and proper treatment /care of diabetes in children and adolescents" said Professor Dr CS Yajnik, Director, Diabetes Unit, King Edward Memorial Hospital, Pune, India.

Every parent, school teacher, school nurse, doctor and others involved in the care of children should be familiar with the warning signs or symptoms of diabetes which could be any one or more of the following:- frequent urination, excessive thirst, increased hunger, weight loss, tiredness, lack of concentration, blurred vision, vomiting and stomach pain. In children with Type-2 diabetes these symptoms may be mild or absent.

Type-1 diabetes is an auto-immune disease that cannot be prevented. Globally, it is the most common form of diabetes in children, affecting around 500,000 children under 15 years of age. Finland, Sweden and Norway have the highest incidence rates for Type-1 diabetes in children. However, as a result of increasing childhood obesity and sedentary lifestyles, Type-2 diabetes is also increasing at a very fast pace in children and adolescents. In some countries, like Japan, Type-2 diabetes has become more common in children than Type-1.