Background: Currently there are 19 million people in Africa with diabetes, mainly Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) (95%), estimated to grow to 47 million people by 2045. However, there are concerns with early diagnosis of patients with Type 1 diabetes (T1DM) with often patients presenting late with complications. Concerns also to access and affordability of insulin and affordability of monitoring equipment and test strips with typically high patient co-payments with potentially catastrophic consequences for families. This negatively impacts on the quality of care adversely affecting morbidity and mortality. There are also issues of patient education and psychosocial support affecting patients’ quality of life. These challenges need to be debated and potential future activities discussed to improve the future care of patients with T1DM across Africa. Methodology: Documentation of the current situation across Africa including the epidemiology and economics of diabetes as well as facilities and available treatments within public healthcare system for patients with T1DM. In addition, ongoing activities to improve future care. Subsequently, contextualise the findings with input from senior level government, academic and other professionals from across Africa to provide future guidance. Results: Whilst the prevalence rates for T1DM are considerably lower than T2DM, there are ongoing concerns with late diagnosis of T1DM as well as the routine provision of insulin and monitoring equipment across Africa. High patient co-payments exacerbate the situation. There are ongoing developments to address this including the instigation of universal health care and partnerships with non-governmental organisations, patient organisations and pharmaceutical companies to improve future care. Their impact remains to be seen. A range of activities have been documented for all key stakeholder groups to improve future care. Conclusion: There are concerns with the management of patients with T1DM across Africa. A number of activities have been suggested to address this and will be monitored.

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