Health workers are urging Bermuda to wake up to the silent killer diabetes which is now blighting the lives of young children.

Around ten children have Type Two diabetes which until recently only showed up in adults.

And Diabetes Centre nurse educator Christine Johnson warned that thousands of adults have the potentially deadly disease without even realising it.

Known cases top the 9,000 mark with around 400 new cases each year.

Ms Johnson said in many cases the disease could be stopped if treated early enough.

She said: ?There are probably another 2,000 people who don?t know they have it.

?A lot of people have complications ? they need dialysis or end up blind or needing limb amputations.?

About a third of diabetics end up with heart attacks ? the number one cause of death for sufferers.

Diabetics were also four times more likely than non diabetics to have heart attacks although statistics on how many die from symptoms related to their illness are unavailable.

Ms Johnson said: ?We have quite a high incidence of amputations for diabetics.?

The age of those losing limbs is also getting younger.

Health workers fear one in four of Bermuda?s population could have diabetes within the next 20 years if current trends continue, particularly as the disease is showing up in children as young as ten.

Currently one in seven have the disease ? far higher than in America where only six percent of the population have succumbed.

The Diabetes Centre clinical co-ordinator Debbie Jones told sufferers include increasing numbers of students including children as young as ten, since the first five known cases showed up in 2002.

Rising rates of child diabetes have been linked with soaring child obesity.

Around 25 percent of teens were found to be overweight in a 2002 survey, and nine percent obese.

However, the cases of diabetes in teens have dramatically risen so for affected teens eating right and exercising is not just a lifestyle choice but a means for survival.

Bermuda?s obesity rate ? 20 percent in 2002 ? is higher than that of the US where the diabetes has long been considered itself an epidemic, and a recent study shows that over the course of their lives, nine out of ten men and seven out of ten women will become overweight, which easily leads to obesity.

However Ms Jones (pictured) said that Bermuda?s obesity rate has worsened since 2002.

But the spectre of diabetes will be put in the spotlight next month during a health promotion featuring free blood sugar and blood pressure screening at the hospital lobby.

This year medics will focus on tell-tale signs on the feet including blackened toes and cuts that won?t heal.

Ms Jones said if caught early enough those at risk could stave off the illness and lead full lives free from the need for dialysis and insulin shots.

Often it is simply a case of sticking to an exercise regime and switching to healthier eating.