(UK) NHS working to provide type 1 diabetes screening for children

Jan 20, 2026, Daily Mail: Landmark study paves the way for type 1 diabetes screening among children 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/landmark-study-paves-the-way-for-type-1-diabetes-screening-among-children/ar-AA1UCmCk 

NHS pre-diabetes clinics for children are to be set up after a “landmark” study confirmed the feasibility of using finger-prick blood test as a screening tool to spot the disease before symptoms arise.

The study found that children can be diagnosed in the earliest stage of type 1 (T1) diabetes – paving the way for a potential screening programme in the future.

Experts said that the finding could lead to a “step change” in the way type 1 diabetes is diagnosed and treated.

At present “too many” children with type 1 diabetes are only diagnosed when they are in a medical emergency, they added.

If children can be identified in the earliest stages of disease they can get access to treatments which can delay the need for insulin treatment for years.

The Early Surveillance for Autoimmune Diabetes (Elsa) study, led by the University of Birmingham and co-funded by Diabetes UK and Breakthrough T1D, was launched to assess the feasibility of screening in the UK.

The results from the first two years of the study have been published in correspondence published in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology.

UK children aged three to 13 without type 1 diabetes were invited to participate and they provided a finger print blood sample which was checked for antibodies which have previously been found to be present in pre-symptomatic patients.

Children identified as potentially having a risk of T1 diabetes were invited for further blood tests or sugar tolerance tests.

Overall 17,283 tests were analysed and more than 200 children were found to be at risk or have markers in their blood that indicate risk of T1D.

The next phase of the study, Elsa 2, will involve more children recruited from a wider age range, from two to 17.

This part of the study will support NHS clinics for four years at each of the 20 study sites across the UK.

The clinics will help support and educate families where children are found to be at risk of, or have early, type 1 diabetes.

Staff will also be able to help children as they move on to insulin treatment.

If approved by the NHS’s spending watchdog, some youngsters may have access to a new type of treatment – teplizumab – which can help delay the need for insulin treatment and was approved for UK use by the medicines regulator last year. . . .

 “By finding children in the earliest stages, we’re not just preparing families, we’re opening the door to treatments that can delay the need for insulin by years.”

Italy was the first country to roll out a national screening programme and other countries are looking to introduce screening for the condition.