IDDM in Malta

Abstract

Childhood diabetes (IDDM) is generally accepted to concentrate on insulin-dependent diabetes first occurring in subjects younger than 15 years of age, but it must be remarked that this type of diabetes can and indeed does appear in older patients, both adolescents and adults. In the latter this often seems to be a late-onset, slow developing form of insulin-needing diabetes which could at times be mistaken for secondary failure to oral hypoglycaemic agents. This condition was greatly underestimated in Malta for a long time, having been overshadowed by the much more common form of diabetes - NIDDM, whose prevalence here has been reported to be the highest in Europe. However, recent findings clearly show that this type of diabetes is not at all rare in our population; in fact its incidence ranks among the higher in the Mediterranean area.