Black children suffering from diabetes have faced a death rate twice as high as for white children in the last 25 years, according to a new research lead by the U.S. government.

This high rate is probably due to the gaps from the medical care, as the federal officials said.

Black people living in poor area do not benefit of proper medical services and do not have enough information about this disease, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from Atlanta said yesterday.

They based their theory on the study of data from 1979 to 2004 that included youngsters with ages between 1 and 19. The results were surprising. Although white children seem to be the ones who have higher rates in suffering from diabetes, the death rate is highest among blacks.

From 2003 to 2004, the death diabetes rate was 2.46 for blacks compared to 0.91 for white children and teens. Moreover, the blacks’ rate death seemed to have increased since 1998 while the whites’ decreased significantly from 1979 to 1994, according to CDC epidemiologist Dr. Laura L. Polakowski, who co-authored the report.

The study revealed that 125,000 American children suffer from diabetis.

"Incidence of type 2 diabetes is increasing. With proper management and access to care, morbidity and mortality from diabetes is preventable, particularly in the pediatric population,” the CDC said.

One has type 1 diabetes when the body does not produce the insulin, a hormone needed to convert sugar, starches and other food into energy.

In the type two of diabetes, the most common form of the disease, the body cannot produce enough insulin or make use of the insulin it produce.

Many of the death cases results from complications such as diabetic ketoacidosis, when the level of insulin in the body is too low. This can lead to diabetic coma and eventually death.

"These complications are readily recognizable in children and don't require a great deal of technology to treat them. The rate of death among black children can be lower, because there is a lower rate among white children," Polakowski said.

The researchers stated that there is not sufficient information on why death has higher rates among black children.

Other racial ethnic groups were not included in the study because they had insignificant death rate and could not conduct to a reliable conclusion.

The study appeared in today issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.