National Diabetes Awareness Month --- November 2000
November is National Diabetes Awareness Month. In the United States, an
estimated 15.7 million persons have diabetes
(1). During 1990--1998, the prevalence of
diagnosed diabetes among adults, including gestational diabetes, increased 33%
(2). During November, CDC, in collaboration with 59 state and territorial diabetes control programs
and other partners, will highlight activities that increase awareness of the need for
persons with diabetes to receive influenza vaccine and of the growing public health problem
of type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents.
Persons with diabetes should receive pneumococcal and annual influenza
vaccinations because they are more likely than persons without diabetes to die with
complications of influenza and pneumonia (3). In 1997, only approximately half of persons
with diabetes received an annual influenza vaccination, and only one third received
pneumococcal vaccine (4).
Type 2 diabetes among children and adolescents appears to be a growing
public health problem among American Indians/Alaska Natives and other North American
ethnic populations (5). Although diabetes in children has typically been assumed to be
type 1 diabetes, recent clinical case series have indicated that type 2 diabetes is
emerging among black, Asian/Pacific Islander, Hispanic, and white children and may account
for 8%--45% of the new cases of childhood diabetes
(6).
CDC is developing population-based registries of childhood diabetes to study
prevalence, incidence, natural history, and quality of care. The study will help identify
future program and intervention activities.
CDC. National diabetes fact sheet: national estimates and general information
on diabetes in the United States. Atlanta, Georgia: US Department of Health and
Human Services, CDC, 1998.
Mokdad AH, Ford ES, Bowman BA, et al. Diabetes trends in the U.S.:
1990--1998. Diabetes Care 2000;23:1278--83.
Geiss LS, Thompson TJ. Are persons with diabetes more likely to die from
influenza and pneumonia? Diabetes 1995;44:124.
CDC. Influenza and pneumococcal vaccination rates among persons with
diabetes mellitus---United States, 1997. MMWR 1999;48:961--7.
Fagot-Campagna A, Pettitt DJ, Engelgau MM, et al. Type 2 diabetes among
North American children and adolescents: an epidemiological review and a public
health perspective. J Pediatr 2000;136:664--72.
American Diabetes Association. Type 2 diabetes in children: consensus
conference. Diabetes Care 2000;23:381--9.
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