Many type 1 diabetes cases are misdiagnosed

Thu, 23 Apr 2009
According to recent diabetes news, as many as a third of all Australians with type 1 diabetes were first misdiagnosed as having type 2 diabetes or another illness. Those people who suffer from type 1 diabetes need daily insulin injections to maintain their health . The less intensive treatment prescribed for type 2 diabetes could be lethal to those with type 1.

The president of the Type 1 Diabetes Network, Kate Gilbert, reportedly commenteD: "It's a 24 to 48-hour process where your body can operate with no insulin before you go into a coma and die. When you have type 2 diabetes it is different ... you are still producing insulin but maybe it is not quite enough or it is not working so well."

The group studied 850 Australians to reach their results. Gilbert reportedly continued: " Type 1 diabetes is relatively rare and we would say that GPs don't see a lot of (it), it's also because type 1 diabetes used to be called juvenile diabetes ... there is still this myth that it is a childhood disease and if you get diabetes as an adult it must be type 2."

The study was linked with the five-year anniversary of the Type 1 Diabetes Network Starter Kit.

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