The incidence of type 1 diabetes in China is growing rapidly and occurring at a younger age, with the peak age of onset between 10 and 14 years old, experts said ahead of the World Diabetes Day, which will fall on Tuesday this year.

The number of type 1 diabetes patients below 15 in the country has nearly quadrupled over the past two decades, and the disease has become more common among children below 10 and even younger than 5, said Zhou Zhiguang, director of the National Clinical Research Center for Metabolic Diseases.

"Both the number and growth rate of type 1 diabetes among children in the country are ranked the fourth in the world," he said.

Diabetic patients rely on insulin to control blood glucose level, and children suffering from type 1 diabetes must have their blood glucose measured four to eight times and take at least four injections of insulin on a daily basis. This places a great burden on youngsters' disease management and social psychology, said Jin Sheng, who is in charge of a social organization providing support for minors suffering from the disease and their families in Shanghai.

Yang Tao, director of the endocrinology department of the First Hospital Affiliated with Nanjing Medical University, said that many parents of young patients are disappointed that their children will have to take insulin injections for their entire life.

Tzield, an innovative therapy that can postpone the onset of type 1 diabetes for patients aged 8 or older for nearly three years, made its Asia debut during the 6th China International Import Expo held in Shanghai last week.

The injection by French pharmaceutical company Sanofi, which was approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration last year, is the world's first and only innovative drug that can delay the onset of type 1 diabetes, and marks a major breakthrough in the treatment of type 1 diabetes since the advent of insulin a century ago.