Children with diabetes
An 8-year-old girl, thirsty, drinking a lot, urinating a lot, losing weight, having blurred vision, and bedwetting, was taken by her family to the Central Endocrinology Hospital for testing and found to have high blood sugar of 26.1mmol/l, many times higher than normal. The patient was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.
Dr. Nguyen Manh Tuan, Department of Endocrinology (Central Endocrinology Hospital) said that this is just one of many cases of type 1 diabetes in children that have been treated at the Central Endocrinology Hospital. Many cases from 7-18 years old were hospitalized with a diagnosis of type 1 diabetes with very high blood sugar levels.
The Central Endocrinology Hospital also issued a warning about the risk of obesity leading to type 2 diabetes. A typical case is patient D.T.M (22 years old, in Hanoi) who has been obese since childhood. When he came to the hospital for examination, the patient was very surprised to discover that he had type 2 diabetes.
Patient D.T.M shared that he had tried to lose weight but stopped because he was worried that the diet was not safe. Therefore, his weight from adulthood until now has remained high.
According to Dr. Nguyen Manh Tuan, type 2 diabetes usually appears in people entering middle age. As for patient M, type 2 diabetes appeared early, on the basis of obesity, a diet rich in carbohydrates, fat, and lack of exercise.
Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Minh Dien - Director of the National Children's Hospital - said that in Vietnam, accumulated data to date shows that about 1,750 children with type 1 diabetes have been diagnosed at major children's hospitals across the country. The National Children's Hospital alone is monitoring and treating about 1,000 children with type 1 diabetes as outpatients.
At the National Children's Hospital, if 10 years ago they only received about 10 cases per year, in recent years there have been hundreds of cases per year, including newborns with diabetes.
Type 1 diabetes, also known as insulin-dependent diabetes, is mainly found in children and adolescents, because the pancreas is no longer able to produce enough insulin. Patients with type 1 diabetes need to be treated with insulin to have a chance of survival.
More than 60% of people with diabetes are undiagnosed
In Vietnam, a national survey by the Central Endocrinology Hospital (2002) showed that the national diabetes rate was 2.7%; after 10 years, this rate increased to 5.4%. The results of the most recent national survey (2020) showed that the diabetes rate in Vietnam was 7.3%; the pre-diabetes rate was 17.8%.
Among the interesting figures are that the rate of undiagnosed diabetes in Vietnam is currently more than 60% and more than half of adults have never had a blood sugar test to detect diabetes.
Deputy Minister of Health Tran Van Thuan said that to effectively manage this disease, patients need a comprehensive treatment regimen including a reasonable diet, regular physical exercise, taking medication as prescribed, and self-care skills such as self-measuring blood sugar and injecting insulin.
"The rate of obesity is increasing while the age of diabetes is getting younger, which is really alarming" - Deputy Minister Tran Van Thuan emphasized.
To cope with the above situation, the diabetes prevention and control system has completed the goal of controlling the increase rate of diabetes nationwide, in the period of 2020 - 2026 at 7.3% compared to the target of below 10% as directed by the Prime Minister.
Prof. Dr. Tran Van Thuan said that World Diabetes Day (November 14) was proposed by the Diabetes Federation and the World Health Organization in 1991. In 2024, the theme of World Diabetes Day is: "Know your risk to prevent the disease". The message emphasizes the importance of understanding the risk of diabetes, thereby taking timely preventive measures.
