INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Roche Diabetes Care,
makers of the ACCU-CHEK® portfolio of diabetes management
products and services, is proud to host its second annual Infusion
Site Awareness Week, Aug. 29-Sept. 4, a week-long effort to
highlight the importance of proper infusion site management for the
400,000 people in the United States with Type 1 diabetes who use an
insulin pump.
“The inaugural Infusion Site Awareness Week, which was launched
during the 2010 annual American Association of Diabetes Educators
(AADE) conference, helped us reach hundreds of diabetes educators
and people living with Type 1 diabetes who are now better able to
identify and address potential complications stemming from improper
site management,” said Roche Diabetes Care North America Medical
Director Andreas Stuhr, M.D.
According to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), a
supporting partner for this year’s campaign, as many as 3 million
Americans live with type 1 diabetes, and about 15,000 children and
15,000 adults are diagnosed with the disease every year.
“Living with type 1 diabetes requires a person to be extremely
aware and knowledgeable about the disease,” said Aaron Kowalski,
Ph.D., Assistant Vice President of Treatment Therapies for JDRF.
“In addition to monitoring blood sugar and adjusting diet and
exercise, proper infusion site rotation and care is an often
underemphasized, but very important part of good diabetes
management. Infusion Site Awareness Week is a perfect opportunity
for diabetes educators to discuss the importance of best practices
for insulin pump usage with their patients, both new and old.”
For people with diabetes using insulin pump therapy, the
infusion site is where an insulin pump’s plastic cannula or steel
needle is placed under the user’s skin to administer insulin.
Infusion site management is the practice of choosing a site,
cleaning and preparing it, properly inserting a cannula or ne
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