Pitching for approximately 75,000 juvenile diabetic patients, Singh, a practising doctor himself, said a high rate of death among such children was mainly due to inability of their parents to afford insulin for their lifelong treatment.
Taking a leaf out from his professional history, Singh said ever since 1996, he made it a rule to provide free insulin to every destitute diabetic child who was insulin- dependent.
Till date, there are dozens of such children who have received free insulin from him, some of whom have since grown up, married and are now employed, Singh was quoted by an official release as having said at his inaugural address at the Afro-Asian conclave on diabetes in children organised by Denmark-based Novo Nordisk Education Foundation.
Holding charges of Minister of State in Prime Minister's Office and Ministries of Personnel and Earth Sciences, Singh said there is some times a tendency to ignore the fact that there are over 75,000 children with Type-1 juvenile diabetes in India who require lifelong insulin for survival.
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In Type 1 diabetes, which is usually diagnosed in children and young adults, the body does not produce insulin.
Referring to the Changing Diabetes in Children (CDiC) programme, which was dedicated to the country by former President APJ Abdul Kalam, Singh said that to strive for the care of economically-deprived diabetic children was a way to serve the nation through the medical profession.
Even as insulin injection is the only viable option available for survival of such children today, Singh hoped that very soon there would be a viable oral insulin option also available.