HEALTH professionals are not diagnosing type one diabetes quickly enough which is putting children’s lives at risk, say doctors.
Children who do not receive immediate treatment for the condition are at increased risk of the potentially fatal complication diabetic ketoacidosis, which kills 10 people every year.
Dr Julie Edge, a consultant in paediatric diabetes at Oxford Children’s Hospital, said: “The diagnosis of diabetes can be made very quickly with a finger-prick test of blood glucose level and no other investigations are necessary.
“All parents should ask for this to be done at the first presentation to their GP if they believe their child may have diabetes and, once diagnosed, children should be referred on the same day to the diabetes team.”
Symptom of diabetes include excessive thirst, unusually high levels of urination, feeling tired all the time and unexplained weight loss.
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