Diabetes in Chinese Children triples

The past 25 years has seen the number of diabetic children in China triple.
Research by the Children’s Hospital of Fundan University in Shanghai revealed that the ratio of children, under 14 with diabetes in the city was between 1997 and 2000 was 1.7 per 100,000. Figures from a survey in the 1980s gave the ratio at 0.61 per 100,000.
The majority of children had Type 1 diabetes which experts believe is triggered by an unbalanced diet, failure of the autoimmune system and environmental factors, among some of the known causes.
Suffers need to take insulin daily, to prevent ketoacidosis, a life-threatening coma.
Shen Shuixia, chief of the endocrinology department at the Children’s Hospital of Fundan University is appealing for more recognition of the condition.
He said, “The cost of treatment can be a major burden for many families.”
Patients prefer to be treated as outpatients as hospitalisation costs more, and is not covered by the national medical insurance scheme.