Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Fides Service) – Children who develop diabetes in sub-Saharan Africa are dying within a year for want of insulin. Supplies of the drug and the syringes needed for daily injections are erratic in many places in Africa and some families walk 250 miles to get the insulin their child needs.
The International Insulin Foundation headed by John Yudkin, has carried out a detailed study of the treatment available to children with type-1 diabetes in Mozambique and Zambia and concluded that better distribution of insulin and education of healthworkers, especially in rural areas, could cut the death .
In the western world, daily injections of insulin and careful monitoring mean that children who develop what is known as type-1 or insulin-dependent diabetes in their early teens - the form with a genetic origin - live normal, healthy lives. Type-2 diabetes, which is usually diagnosed in middle age, is linked with obesity, but can also be stabilised.
The World Health Organisation has warned that the number of people with diabetes in developing countries could more than double in 30 years, from 115 million to 284 million. About 90% of diabetes cases are type-2, but children die of type-1. In Mozambique, a child in a rural area will live for a year with diabetes, or four years if they live in a town with a hospital. (AP) (21/11/2003 Fides Service; lines:22 words:248)
