A young diabetic patient is showered with gifts by staff at Beijing Ruijing Diabetes Hospital during a party to celebrate her birthday. [China Daily]

Diabetes is rapidly becoming one of the biggest dangers to teenagers and even young children in China due to a serious lack of nutritional education, warn health experts.

It was confirmed last week that the country has the highest population of diabetics in the world, with more than 92 million sufferers.

According to figures from the Chinese Medical Doctors' Association, children make up about 5 percent of that figure. The number of juveniles with the potentially fatal condition is rising by 10 percent every year, a report by the association said.

But it is not just the impact on a child's health doctors are concerned about.

Discrimination toward diabetes can also seriously affect a sufferer's chances of finding a job or even getting accepted into college.

"Although the proportion of juvenile diabetics still accounts for a low percentage of all diabetics, their numbers have increased very fast in recent years," said Ji Linong, director of endocrinology at the People's Hospital of Peking University.

"This is a situation that calls for urgent attention from society."

One of the youngest patients ever to be diagnosed with the condition is a 3-year-old girl admitted to Shaoxing People's Hospital in Zhejiang Province in January. Staff said they have treated a dozen or so child diabetics under 10 years old in recent years.

The girl's grandmother, who is in her late 50s and did not want to be named, took the youngster to get help after noticing she was losing a lot of weight. "She loves fizzy drinks and she always seemed anxious to eat," she said. "But the more she ate, the thinner she got."

Tests showed the patient's blood-sugar level was more than 11 millimoles per liter (the standard unit of measurement), far higher than the normal 3.9 to 6.1 mmol/L.

"Diabetes is no longer just a problem among the elderly -- the number of young sufferers is becoming very serious," said Zhu Qiqian, director of Shaoxing Diabetes Prevention Center. "The (3-year-old) patient is probably looking at a lifetime of treatment."

With child obesity on the rise in China, Zhu warned that parents must be vigilant to spot the symptoms, such as excessive thirst, weight loss, fatigue, frequent urination and blurred vision.

Diabetes causes excessive levels of sugar in the blood, either because the body does not produce insulin or because certain cells do not respond properly to the insulin produced, it kills about three million people worldwide each year.

Among the various strains of the condition are Type I and Type II, and for years most child diabetics across the globe had Type 1, which is usually kept under control with regular insulin injections. However, over the past decade, experts say many nations have seen an explosion in children with Type II, which carries with it an increased risk of heart attacks, amputation, kidney failure and strokes.

In China, the number of Type II cases has steadily risen from 10 percent of all reported cases to more than 50 percent in recent years, said Ge Huanqi, president of Beijing Ruijing Diabetes Hospital.

"The increase is linked to our improved living standards, which has led to unhealthy diets and inactive lifestyles," he said. "Children today spend long periods playing video games or sitting at a desk studying in class or at home. Very few get enough exercise. Meanwhile, they are eating too much high-calorie and fatty foods, which explains why we are seeing more obese children on campus."

A study by Qingdao Endocrinology Diabetes Hospital last year that included 10,000 school students aged 8 to 18 found bad dietary habits were the No.1 cause of diabetes.

China's national curriculum does not require schools to offer classes in food or nutritional education.