Type 1 diabetes puts 700 minors in intensive care

In Spain, 700 minors end up in intensive care each year when type 1 diabetes is diagnosed, a paediatric specialist says. At a meeting in Madrid ahead of Saturday’s World Diabetes Day, doctors, patients and families called for earlier testing across the country. They want the tests offered consistently in every region.

Around 90% of people diagnosed with type 1 diabetes have no family history of it, those at the meeting said. Ana María Tormos Fons, whose daughter has the condition, said it is often discovered only when a child is admitted to hospital, sometimes with a dangerous metabolic crisis called diabetic ketoacidosis. Spain diagnoses 1,400 children under 15 with type 1 diabetes each year.

Early testing, known as screening, is already recommended for close relatives of people with type 1 diabetes and for people with certain other risks. But it is not available everywhere, the group said. For families on Mallorca, their demand is for access to those recommended tests on the same terms as elsewhere in Spain.

Dr Nerea Itza Martín of La Paz University Hospital in Madrid said finding the condition earlier can help prevent complications and give families time to prepare for treatment. The hospital runs a screening programme with quick appointments and follow-up care. Pilot studies in the Basque Country and Asturias are examining how testing might eventually reach more children.

Topics: Health

Source: Europa Press / Mallorca.com