In Nigeria, a silent health crisis is unfolding—diabetes, once thought to be an adult disease, is increasingly affecting children. Across hospitals and homes, young lives are being shaped by a condition few parents even recognize. G.U Chukwu in this report examines experts warn that rising cases of Type 1 diabetes, often diagnosed too late, are claiming preventable lives amid poor awareness, high treatment costs, and limited access to insulin. The article unveils that while global attention turns to Africa’s widening healthcare gap, the plight of Nigerian children with diabetes underscores an urgent question: how many more must suffer before the nation takes childhood diabetes as seriously as it should?
In a country where childhood diseases are often associated with infections and malnutrition, an invisible epidemic is quietly spreading—diabetes in Nigerian children.
Long considered an adult’s disease, diabetes mellitus is increasingly striking the nation’s young, threatening lives and exposing deep gaps in public awareness and healthcare access.
According to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), more than one million children and adolescents under 20 were living with diabetes globally as of 2019.
Nigeria, too, is not spared. Experts now warn that childhood diabetes—particularly Type 1 diabetes, which requires lifelong insulin use—is emerging as an urgent but underreported public health challenge.
When Nigerians talk about diabetes, they often imagine an elderly relative avoiding sugar or a middle-aged parent on daily medication. Yet, as paediatric endocrinologists point out, children are not immune.
“People of any age can be diagnosed with diabetes,” says Dr. Oluwakemi Ashubu, a Lagos-based paediatric diabetologist.
“The most common type among children is Type 1 diabetes, often diagnosed between ages four and six or during puberty between ten and fourteen.”
Type 1 diabetes develops when the body’s immune system mistakenly destroys insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.
Without insulin, the hormone that allows sugar to enter cells for energy, glucose builds up in the blood—causing potentially life-threatening complications if untreated.
While genetics and viral infections are known triggers, environmental stressors during puberty can also play a role.
Type 2 diabetes, which results from the body’s resistance to insulin, is less common in children but increasingly seen among urban youths due to sedentary lifestyles and poor diet.
Reliable national data are scarce, but the IDF estimates that about three in every 100,000 Nigerian children aged 0 to 14 live with Type 1 diabetes.
Hospital studies suggest that many cases go undiagnosed or misdiagnosed as other illnesses until it’s too late.
The signs—excessive thirst, frequent urination, sudden weight loss despite good appetite, fatigue, or even bedwetting in previously toilet-trained children—are often mistaken for minor infections.
“By the time parents seek medical help, 70 percent of children present in diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA),” one paediatric study in northern Nigeria found.
DKA is a medical emergency that can lead to coma or death if insulin treatment is delayed.
The Access to Medicine Foundation’s May 2025 report paints an alarming picture for children across Sub-Saharan Africa. In 2024 alone, an estimated 30,113 preventable deaths occurred in people under 19 from Type 1 diabetes. Nearly 40 percent of those deaths were in Sub-Saharan Africa—the highest burden globally.
The disparity is stark: a 10-year-old diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in some African nations may only live to age 19, while in high-income countries, life expectancy exceeds 75 years. Even more devastating, 63 percent of diabetes-related deaths among people under 25 in Africa result from non-diagnosis.
While major pharmaceutical companies such as Lilly, Novo Nordisk, Sanofi, and Biocon support initiatives to improve care, the foundation’s report found that in 2023, these programs reached only 8 percent of the 825,000 children and young people who needed care across 71 low- and middle-income countries.
In many African settings, basic human insulin remains difficult to access, and modern insulin analogues—offering better glucose control and quality of life—can cost up to seven times more.
The same goes for continuous glucose monitors, which are now standard in Western countries but largely unavailable in Africa.
At children’s clinics in Nigeria, doctors see firsthand the emotional and logistical toll of managing diabetes in low-resource settings.
Dr. Ashubu explains that once diagnosed, children need daily insulin injections, regular glucose monitoring, and continuous education for both the child and caregivers.
“Parents often believe their children can’t eat sugar or must live restricted lives,” she says. “That’s a myth. With the right balance of diet, medication, and exercise, they can live normally.”
Yet stigma and misinformation remain powerful barriers. Some parents refuse to inform schools of their child’s condition, fearing discrimination.
Others delay treatment or turn to herbal remedies like bitter leaf, wrongly believed to “cure” diabetes. These misconceptions often worsen a child’s health.
Health experts stress that insulin is not a cure, but a lifesaving treatment. Stopping it abruptly can have fatal results.
Children should also be encouraged to exercise moderately—about 30 minutes daily—to help insulin work effectively and stabilise blood sugar.
For families, the emotional and financial burden is immense. The cost of insulin, syringes, test strips, and periodic hospital visits can be overwhelming, especially in households already struggling with poverty. Many parents must choose between food, transport, and medication—choices no family should ever face.
The broader impact goes beyond households. Late diagnosis, frequent hospital admissions, and school absenteeism all affect a child’s education and quality of life.
Left unmanaged, diabetes can cause long-term complications like kidney failure, blindness, and heart disease—all beginning from childhood.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s health authorities have made efforts to strengthen diabetes care, but gaps remain wide.
Experts call for better public education, early screening in schools, and inclusion of diabetes management in primary healthcare packages.
The Access to Medicine Foundation urges a shift from donation-based aid to sustainable systems ensuring affordable, reliable access to insulin and monitoring devices. Building local capacity—through training healthcare workers, improving data collection, and expanding outreach—will also be essential.
Parents and teachers must learn to recognize warning signs early. Communities should support—not stigmatize—children with the disease. And government, in partnership with the private sector, must act decisively to make insulin affordable and available to every child who needs it.
Given that, diabetes is not contagious. It is not caused by eating sweets. It is not a death sentence. But without urgent attention, it could quietly rob a generation of Nigerian children of their futures.
The fight against childhood diabetes is a test of national will—a measure of how much value we place on the health and potential of our youngest citizens.
As Dr. Ashubu aptly puts it, “Children with diabetes can live long, full lives. What they need is understanding, support, and access to care. The tragedy is when they die simply because help didn’t come in time.”
Chukwu writes from Imo State.
