September's Endocrinology 

Update features an article on endocrinologists' concern about the high number of late diagnoses of children with type 1. Endocrinologist Professor Jerry Wales has said that rates of ketoacidosis in children from late-presenting diabetes are alarmingly high in Australia, much higher than in the UK, for example. He suggests that part of the problem is GPs doing their own investigations (such as glucose tolerance tests) rather than referring children immediately for emergency treatment. Professor Maria Craig, a paediatric endocrinologist, agrees that it's a serious

problem. She says that when a child has thirst and frequent urination, "it should be treated as type 1
until proven otherwise".

Interestingly, we know anecdotally from members of our network that not only children but also adults are often misdiagnosed or diagnosed late. Were you told that you had type 2, for instance, just because you were an adult when you got sick? Do primary health care professionals need to know more about the symptoms of type 1? Perhaps you could ask your GP to share some information about type 1 with peers, by referring him/her to our website at www.t1dn.org.au. (We even have an eLearning module about living with type 1, developed especially for health professionals!)