Amid the second wave of Covid-19 and ever since this pandemic began, there has been a flurry of doubts about comorbidities that could imperil an infected person’s chances of recovery. Apart from kidney, and liver ailments, cancer, diabetes, and hypertension were listed as comorbidities.
The progression of the path of this virus has stumped most medics as it seems to take different patterns in different people. Some people do not show any symptoms, some go through the infection period with negligible flu-like symptoms. There have been cases of many people suffering breathlessness, damage to vital organs, and even death in some cases.
As per reports of Times of India, there is anecdotal evidence that some people have reportedly developed diabetes either during the infection or after recovery. However, according to reports over 2700 COVID recovered patients in the US have been monitored for the same and the researchers have found that 14% of them developed diabetes subsequently after having infected with COVID-19.
However, a similar study shows the same trend when conducted on about 40,000 COVID-survivors in the UK and China. But none of these people who developed diabetes after (or during) the recovery from COVID-19 infection had a history of diabetes.
Moreover, scientists have not yet discovered why and how COVID-19 can cause diabetes. But yet there are some theories that show the virus progresses within the body that may explain the reasons.
Dr. Ravi Shekhar Jha, HOD and Sr. Consultant- Pulmonology, Fortis Escorts Hospital, Faridabad said while talking to Healthwire, “What one needs to keep in mind is the COVID-19 affects different people in different ways. We are still studying it. It is relatively new and while, in the past one year, we have made significant progress in understanding it, there is still a lot yet to be learnt about the virus. There are no conclusive studies which indicate that the virus results in people developing diabetes.”
“However, the virus does significantly reduce the immunity of people. Abroad, some cases have been reported which indicate that there is a connection between the same, however the same is yet to be seen in India. What is for certain is that people with diabetes are at a higher risk of contracting the virus as their immunity is low,” added Dr. Jha.