Diabetes and legislation

Generally, it can be demonstrated that knowledge and pictures about diabetes are badly understood and badly viewed. There are several reasons for this, like the lack of information for the public, the lack of information about the disease and new technologies lead to new treatments, confusion between the 2 types of diabetes... That is why employers are scared to recruit diabetics and why relationships are sometimes not easy. They often think that a diabetic patient always has a lot of problems due to the disease and so he can't be efficient at work. Or this is totally wrong, as a patient who is taking care of himself correctly can be like any other person.

In the legislation, diabetics have some restrictions or more exams to pass to get different things like a driving license:
. To work in public functions, a diabetic must have the approval of the Comité Médical in France. Moreover, he can be fired if the Comité Médical declares that he or she is no longer able to do their work correclty. Even if it is a serious organization, the choice can be subjective, due to a bias about diabetics.
. Some jobs and sports are forbidden, like scuba-diving or truck driver, bus driver... Some schools too, like the ENPC (Ecole National des Ponts et Chaussées). To sum up, all the military schools and army jobs plus some engineering schools and public functions, and sport where the total master of oneself is mandated.
. They have to mention their diabetes when they pass their driving license, which has a maximum validity of 5 years (it can be just 6 months).

There are a lot of other details in the legislation where diabetes is mentionned, and this is why a lot of associations are fighting to make the life of diabetics better.