Indonesia Joins Global Program to Prevent Child and Adolescent Mortality with Type 1 Diabetes

The General Chairperson of the IDAI Central Management, Prof. Dr. dr. Aman Bhakti Pulungan, Sp.A, (K), FAAP, FRCPI (Hon.), said that in 2018, the total population of children in Indonesia is estimated at 79 million. However, IDAI noted that only 1,249 Indonesian children were diagnosed with type-1 diabetes during the 2017-2019 period.

“Treatment of type-1 diabetes must be comprehensive. One of the problems we face related to diabetes is data. With this program, Indonesia will be the first country to have the right system for children with type-1 diabetes and help in every aspect of its management,” he said.

The development of diabetes management since 100 years of the discovery of insulin allows children with type 1 diabetes to live better and healthier lives, said Dr. Aman. Unfortunately, the prognosis for type 1 diabetes has hardly changed since the discovery of insulin.

“In fact, there are still many children who die from type 1 diabetes because of a lack of diabetes education, special health services, equipment to monitor diabetes, and also drugs,” he said.

Type 1 diabetes, said Aman, is a serious chronic disease and until now there is no treatment that can cure it. In the last ten years, the prevalence of type-1 diabetes in Indonesia has increased sevenfold, from 3.88 per 100 million population in 2000 to 28.19 per 100 million population in 2010. The exact figure for the prevalence of type-1 diabetes in children -children is estimated to be higher than the existing data.

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