About 40 new cases of children with type 1 diabetes surface in Malta each year, highlighting the need for improved health resources to counter one of the most common chronic diseases of childhood – it can strike children at any age, including pre-school children and even toddlers.

The theme of this year’s World Diabetes Day, being celebrated on Wednesday, is Diabetes in Children and Adolescents, stressing the message that ‘no child should die of diabetes’. This year is special because the General Assembly of the United Nations passed a landmark resolution in December recognising diabetes as a chronic, debilitating and costly disease. Through its resolution, it designated World Diabetes Day as a United Nations Day, to be observed every year as from this year.

Speaking at a press conference yesterday, Prof. Guido de Marco, former president of the UN’s General Assembly, said that in a way, it was sad that a resolution had been passed because this meant that diabetes was disrupting the development of humanity. “Despite the advances in science and medicine, we have not yet managed to find the cure, we can only treat it and control it,” he said.

However, even controlling created problems, especially for children and adolescents, who sometimes faced the risk of being marginalised due to lack of awareness. Maltese Diabetes Association president Anna Zammit McKeon said the organisation received several complaints from parents of children with diabetes who felt they were not finding cooperation from heads of schools and teachers. As a result, children were being marginalised because of their condition and sometimes even sent home, when all the child would have required is a drink with sugar. Children also felt uncomfortable with the arrangement of having to monitor their sugar levels in the principal’s office, as opposed to the classroom.

The situation among young people was also extremely delicate, because they tended to rebel and sometimes neglected their condition, so as not to stand out from their friends. Ms Zammit McKeon said it was unfortunate that resources at hospital remained limited. “There is just one nutritionist working full-time for the entire hospital, while another comes in on Saturdays. Meanwhile, the intervention of a psychologist is only by appointment,” she pointed out. “These two sectors have to form part of the Diabetes Clinic. There is also just one diabetes nurse educator, and it's impossible to keep up with the demand,” she added.