Michael Sakuneka

Michael Sakuneka

Diabetes seriously affects the health of children because it interferes with childhood development and adolescence, Limpopo health and social development MEC Seaparo Sekoati said.

Sekoati was addressing hundreds of people during the World Diabetes Day at GaKgapane Stadium outside Modjadjiskloof in Limpopo yesterday.

Sekoati urged teachers, parents and the community at large to help children living with diabetes as well as those who are at risk to prevent unnecessary deaths.

The celebration, held under the theme Diabetes in Children and Adolescents, aimed to raise awareness about the danger this disease poses. Sekoati explained that diabetes affected people when the pancreas did not produce enough insulin (a protein hormone that controls the concentration of glucose in the blood).

Insulin deficiency results in diabetes mellitus, a disorder of carbohydrate metabolism characterised by excessive thirst and excretion of abnormally large quantities of urine containing an excess of sugar, caused by a deficiency in insulin.