DNA Explainer: How COVID-19 is leading to increase in diabetes cases in India

It is not just the COVID-19 pandemic that created havoc with the lives of people but its after-effects can also be clearly seen in patients post-COVID. The virus can damage the lungs, heart, and brain, which increases the risk of long-term health problems.

Many patients who recovered or were recovering from the COVID-19 infection after the second wave in India developed Mucormycosis or black fungus which led to some patients losing their vision in one or both eyes. And in rare cases, doctors had to surgically remove the jaw bone in order to stop the disease from spreading, while some even died from the disease.

Now another problem is arising in patients who recovered from the COVID-19 disease and this has become a cause of concern for doctors in the country. Doctors have reported a definite increase in the number of diabetes cases during the pandemic.

For this doctors not just blame the viral infection but the use of steroids in the treatment, and the lack of physical activity during the pandemic as people are stuck up in their homes. The doctors treating such patients say that many patients with COVID-19 come to hospitals with a severe diabetic crisis.

India accounts for one in six people in the world with diabetes. Home to an estimated 77 million diabetics, it is second only to China, which has 116 million people living with the disease. Doctors believe many more remain undiagnosed for this chronic and progressive disease.

Diabetes occurs when the pancreas is unable to produce enough insulin or the body is unable to effectively use the insulin it produces. This leads to increased concentration of glucose, a type of sugar in the blood, and poses serious health risks, including damage to the kidneys, eyes, and heart.

On the flip side, diabetics are at a greater risk of acquiring the COVID-19 disease. High blood pressure, obesity, heart and lung diseases add to the woes. India has nearly 32 million recorded infections of COVID-19, only behind the United States.

Diabetes in COVID-19 patients

Many COVID-19 patients initially show type 1 diabetes-like symptoms meaning extremely high sugar levels and need insulin injections. 

Doctors are of the view that diabetes could be triggered by stress to the body during the COVID-19 infection.

COVID-19 is also directly affecting the beta cells in the pancreas as they have the ACE II receptors used by the Sars-CoV-2 virus.

In some cases, the COVID-19 infection is destroying the beta cells in the pancreas as shown by lab studies.

As per an HT report, 90% of the new diabetes patients coming to a clinic in Delhi post-second wave were those who were given steroids during COVID-19.

The use of corticosteroids leads to blood glucose levels shooting up not only in diabetics but even those without history.

After discharge from the hospital, some patients have seen their blood sugar levels return to normal but not all did.

However, it remains unknown that people with new onset of diabetes after COVID-19 become lifelong diabetics or not?

Doctors also say that in some cases patients were likely to have been diabetic previously and never got tested.

Doctors believe India will inevitably face a higher burden of diabetes after the pandemic is over.