People who recovered from mild COVID-19 could be at higher risk of developing diabetes

By Gwyn Wright via SWNS

People who have recovered from mild coronavirus could be at higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes, according to a new study.

An analysis of the health records from more than 1,000 German GP practices found people who had just had a mild bout of the virus had a 28 percent higher risk of ending up with type 2 diabetes than people who had recently had other types of viral respiratory infections.

The link is being probed in studies about long Covid and the CoviDiab registry, which was set up to investigate links between the two diseases.

The researchers say diabetes screening for recovered coronavirus sufferers should be rolled out in response to the findings.

Earlier research has uncovered that the novel virus may damage beta cells which produce insulin, either by killing them or changing the way they work, causing high blood sugar levels.

The link could also be caused by tissues becoming less reactive to insulin because they are inflamed.

And lounging about during lockdown could even be playing a part, the researchers say.

It could explain why new-onset hyperglycaemia and insulin resistance have been reported in virus victims with no prior history of diabetes.

However, it remains unclear whether these changes are just temporary blip or whether people who have recovered from coronavirus are at a higher risk of developing chronic diabetes.

This confusion is compounded by the fact there are not many studies that probe the prevalence of diabetes in people who have recovered from mild coronavirus.

For the study, researchers looked at the records of 35,865 Germans who caught the bug between March 2020 and January 2021, and compared them with a group of patients who did not catch it but instead developed other respiratory infections.

Participants were matched for sex, age, health insurance coverage, the month they caught the bugs and comorbidities including obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and their risk from heart attacks and strokes.

Models were used to calculate incidence rate ratios for type two diabetes and other forms of diabetes.

People with prior history of coronavirus or diabetes and those using corticosteroids within 30 days after the index dates were excluded.

Patients who had recovered from coronavirus were followed up 119 days after their infection on average while those who had other viruses were followed up 161 days after their infection on average.

The percentage of people who had been hospitalized with their condition was roughly the same in both groups (3.2 percent in COVID-19 sufferers and 3.1 percent in the control group).

New cases of diabetes were more common in people who had tested positive for coronavirus than for those with the other illnesses- 15.8 per 1,000 people got diabetes compared with 12.3 percent of people in the control group.

The risk of developing type two diabetes was 28 percent higher among those who had recovered from coronavirus.

While type two diabetes is not likely to be a problem for the vast majority of people who have just had mild coronavirus, the researchers say anyone recovering should be aware of the signs and symptoms of diabetes.

These include fatigue, frequent urination and increased thirst.

People should seek treatment right away if they experience any of these, the researchers say.

Lead study author Professor Wolfgang Rathmann said: “COVID-19 infection may lead to diabetes by upregulation of the immune system after remission, which may induce pancreatic beta cell dysfunction and insulin resistance, or patients may have been at risk for developing diabetes due to having obesity or prediabetes, and the stress COVID-19 put on their bodies speeded it up.

“Since the COVID-19 patients were only followed for about three months, further follow-up is needed to understand whether type 2 diabetes after mild COVID-19 is just temporary and can be reversed after they have fully recovered, or whether it leads to a chronic condition."

Study co-author Professor Oliver Kuss said: “The risk of abnormally high blood sugar in individuals with COVID-19 is most likely a continuum, depending on risk factors such as injury to beta cells, an exaggerated inflammatory response, and changes in pandemic-related weight gain and decreased physical activity.”

The findings were published in the journal Diabetologia.