Health secretary Sanjay Kumar (left) presents a diabetes kit to a girl at the programme at Patna Medical College and Hospital on Thursday. Picture by Jai Prakash

A centre to take care of children suffering from diabetes was launched at Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) on Thursday.

The Bihar wing of Novo Nordisk Education Foundation and PMCH organised a programme, Changing Diabetes in Children, on Thursday to launch the centre. Christened the PMCH-CDIC Centre, it is a first-of-its kind in the state and would run from the endocrinology department of the health hub.

Health secretary Sanjay Kumar inaugurated it. He said: “The PMCH is the first hospital in Bihar to have a CDIC centre. In the coming years, other medical colleges in the state would also be asked to open such centres so that a large number of children can benefit.”

The PMCH-CDIC Centre will give diabetic children from below poverty line families free insulin, gluocometer (a medical device that determines the approximate concentration of glucose in the blood), glucose testing strips and diabetes education material. They would also enjoy free diagnostic tests and doctors’ consultation.

Kumar said under the Centre-sponsored National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke launched in 2011, five districts in Bihar — Vaishali, Muzaffarpur, West Champaran, East Champaran and Rohtas — were covered. Diabetes screening was conducted at the districts, along with creating awareness and imparting education about the treatment of diabetic patients under the project.

He said during the screening, it was found that around 15 per cent of the urban population in the districts suffered from diabetes, while around 7 per cent population in the rural areas were diabetic. He added in Bihar around 10,000 children under the age of 15 are found to suffer from diabetes.

Vinay Ransiwal, a trustee of the Novo Nordisk Education Foundation, said: “According to a worldwide estimate, over 4.4 lakh children under the age of 15 suffer from diabetes.”

At the inauguration of the PMCH-CDIC Centre, Kumar presented a medical kit, comprising insulin, medicines and books on diabetes, to 14-year-old Anita Kumari.

She later told The Telegraph: “I am suffering from diabetes since I was two years old. I regularly take insulin. Now that I am enrolled with the CDIC centre, my treatment is taken care of.”

PMCH principal N.P. Yadav said the centre would not help people unless they were aware about it and urged the hospital administration and the state health department to create awareness about the unit so that families from economically weaker section were benefited.