“No child should die of diabetes” – World Diabetes Day
November 13, 2007 by Grace Ibay
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
Recognizing that diabetes is a chronic, debilitating and costly disease, the United Nations has designated November 14 as “World Diabetes Day“, to raise awareness and increased campaign to control and manage diabetes worldwide.
The focus of this year’s observance is “diabetes in children and adolescents”.
Diabetes is one of the most common chronic diseases of childhood. It can strike children at any age, including pre-school children and even toddlers. Yet diabetes in children is often diagnosed late, when the child has diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), or it is misdiagnosed completely. In many parts of the world, insulin, the main life-saving medication that children with diabetes need to survive, is not available (or is available but remains inaccessible for reasons of economy, geography or constraints on supply). As a consequence, many children die of diabetes, particularly in low and middle-income countries. Those closest to the child – family, school staff, family doctor – may not be aware of the ominous signs. The World Diabetes Day 2007 and 2008 campaigns set out to challenge this and firmly establish the message that ‘no child should die of diabetes’.
Click here to find out how you can participate today and this month (which is also American Diabetes Month).
Tags: diabetes, November 14, awareness, campaign, world diabetes day, united nations, type 1, type 2, American diabetes month, children, adolescents
I am glad they have chosen this theme. Despite WHO including insulin in the essential drugs list few years back the cost of this drug remains high and in many parts of the world children succumb because they can not afford therapy. Also while some of them may afford insulin, they can not possibly bear the cost of glucose monitoring systems required for diabetes. There should be some kind of control over the cost of the gadgets and disposables (like glucosticks and lancets) used in monitoring of blood glucose.