Novo Nordisk plans to educate parents and school managements on the difficulties that child diabetics face and how to help them cope with it, according to the release.

Though India with an estimated 42 million diabetics is called the diabetes capital of the world, the exact number of young patients is not known. Child diabetics drop out of school earlier than others. Globally, every 10 seconds, a child diabetic dies. An estimated five lakh children under 15 years are said to have diabetes, 75,000 of them in poor countries. Every day over 200 children are diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes that requires multiple daily insulin shots and blood sugar monitoring. The number is increasing by 3-5 per cent a year, the release said.

The UN has declared 2008 as the Year of diabetes among children and adolescents. The International Diabetes Federation had declared 2007 the Year of the Child with Diabetes.