Changing Diabetes in Children

The Changing Diabetes in Children program is part of Novo Nordisk's Access to Diabetes Care strategy and aims at improving availability, accessibility, affordability and quality of diabetes care for children with type 1 diabetes in least developed countries, via partnerships. It also contributes to the achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals, especially Goal 4: Reduce child mortality and Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development. In each country, the program works with local partners within the framework of defined national health policies, while seeking to build on the overall capacity in the field of diabetes care. The program, which runs over a 5-year period in each country, has three overall objectives: Improve the health and quality of life of children with type 1 diabetes; Strengthen the capacity of the healthcare systems; Sensitize national stakeholders to the specificities of type 1 diabetes in children. Program components include: Improvement of existing infrastructure and supply of medical and laboratory equipment to establish centers for the treatment of children with type 1 diabetes; Training of healthcare professionals and diabetes educators to develop diagnostic abilities and the expertise to treat children with type 1 diabetes. Development of training material specifically adapted to a developing country setting, taking into account the reality in which healthcare professionals operate; Provision of insulin free-of-charge, and blood monitoring glucose equipment and supplies to children and adolescents enrolled in the program for a period of 5 years; Development of diabetes education material for children and their families adapted to the local context, including education sessions and children camps to support better self-monitoring; Implementation of a patient registry system to enable systematic data collection and patient follow up; Insights gained through the Program will be extracted and shared to the benefit of the development of health care systems in developing countries in general. The program is currently implemented in six countries: Bangladesh, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea, Tanzania and Uganda.