OBJECTIVE -The purpose of this study was to assess glycemic control and complications of type 1 diabetes in children and adolescents in Tanzania. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS -This demographic and clinical survey in-cluded 99 children aged between 5 and 18 years attending Muhimbili National Hospital Clinic for Diabetes. A structured questionnaire was used for evaluating socioeconomic data and for estimation of the prevalence of acute complications occurring over the last 6 months. The prevalences of retinopathy and diabetic nephropathy were determined by fundus ophthalmoscopy and by microalbuminuria, respectively.RESULTS -All of these children were treated with a conventional insulin regimen. The mean Ϯ SD duration of diabetes was 4.76 Ϯ 3.58 years. Only 1 child (1%) had good glycemic control (A1C Ͻ7.5%), 60 children (60.6%) had moderate glycemic control (A1C 7.5-10%), 14 children (14.1%) had poor glycemic control (A1C Ͼ10 -12.5%), and 24 children (24.2%) had very poor glycemic control (A1C Ͼ12.5%). At onset of diabetes, 75% of children presented with diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA); 89 children (89.80%) had at least one episode of DKA, and 55 children (55.67%) had symptomatic hypoglycemic episodes. Microalbuminuria was present in 29 (29.3%) and retinopathy in 22 (22.68%) children.CONCLUSIONS -Although there are some methodological limitations, this survey highlights the difficulties of achieving good metabolic control and the high prevalence of acute and chronic complications in Tanzanian children with type 1 diabetes. These results clearly show that major efforts are needed to improve quality of care in children with type 1 diabetes in Tanzania. Diabetes Care 30:2187-2192, 2007T ype 1 diabetes is one of the most frequent chronic disease in children and represents a public health challenge globally. Its burden is huge in developing countries owing to the lack of a basic means for reaching reasonable glycemic control. Because of the unavailability of reliable epidemiological data, the natural history of type 1 diabetes, including its complications, is largely unknown (1). With the few data available on subSaharan African children, incidence in Tanzania was estimated to be 1.5/ 100,000 (2), and an increase in incidence in Sudan from 9.5/100,000 in 1991 to 10.3/100,000 in 1995 has been reported (3). The prevalence is higher in Western countries (4,5), suggesting the possibility of missed diagnosis in sub-Saharan Africa. In fact, the problem of missed diagnosis of childhood diabetes, although not unique to developing countries (6), is certainly much more common than in developed countries (7). In a Sudanese study, it was reported that 10% of children were not admitted at the time of diagnosis, being admitted only after they developed diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) or hypoglycemia (3). This situation contributes to omission of patients in the registry as well as to the possibility of death before diagnosis, especially for those aged Ͻ5 years. In sub-Saharan Africa, most children present with DKA at the time of diagnosis (8,...

The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of HIV-1 infection, the clinical spectrum of HIV-1-associated conditions and HIV-1-associated mortality among children hospitalized in the medical paediatric wards at Muhimbili Medical Centre (MMC), Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. All children admitted to the medical paediatric wards of MMC between August 1995 and January 1996 were eligible for the study. Testing for HIV antibodies was done using 2 consecutive enzyme linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs). ELISA-reactive samples from children aged 18 months and below were further tested by a recently developed heat-denatured p24 antigen assay. The prevalence of HIV-1 infection among the 2015 children studied was 19.2%. When present for 14 days or more, fever, cough, diarrhoea, ear discharge, oral ulcers and skin rash were all significantly more common in HIV-1-infected than in HIV-uninfected children (p < 0.001). In the multivariate analysis cough, ear discharge, oropharyngeal ulcers and skin rash were found to be the most important symptoms. Clinical signs found to be significantly associated with HIV-1 infection in the univariate analysis were wasting, stunting, hair changes, oral thrush, oropharyngeal ulcers, lymphadenopathy, lung consolidation and lung crepitations (p < 0.001). In the multivariate analysis, oral thrush, lung crepitations, cervical lymphadenopathy, wasting and inguinal lymphadenopathy were found to be the most important signs. The 3 most common diagnoses in HIV-1-infected children were acute respiratory infection (ARI) (39.4%), malnutrition (38.1%) and tuberculosis (19.3%), while in HIV-uninfected children they were malaria (47.0%), ARI (25.0%) and malnutrition (16.1%). The mortality rate was 21.4% in HIV-1-infected children and 8.4% in HIV-uninfected children (p < 0.001). In conclusion, the prevalence of HIV-1 infection among hospitalized children at the main hospital in Dar es Salaam was high and associated with high mortality. Many symptoms and signs are indicative of HIV-1 infection, but appropriate laboratory testing is required for diagnosis.