A sharp rise in emergency admissions of children for diabetes treatment has raised concerns that the condition is going undiagnosed or being poorly managed. According to the latest statistics from the NHS Information Centre, emergency admissions for under-18s with diabetes rose by 8 per cent to 3,300 in the year to March 2007.
Of further concern was the high number of children being admitted with diabetic keto-acidosis (DKA), a life-threatening condition occurring when a person's blood glucose levels are dangerously high, causing nausea, vomiting, stomach pains and ultimately loss of consciousness.
NHS figures showed that under-18s accounted for more than a quarter of the 12,326 hospital admissions for DKA over the same period.
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