Since Metro Vancouver resident Craig Spanza contracted COVID-19 at work last March, he’s battled countless long-term after-effects that include debilitating brain fog, fatigue and shortness of breath.
But Spanza, 49, was also dealing with a new diagnosis that came somewhat unexpectedly since his illness: fast-onset type 2 diabetes.
“It definitely looks like it was caused by COVID,” Spanza said. “The doctor said I was off the charts for random glucose tests.”
Spanza is not alone. Around the world, doctors treating people recovering from COVID-19 have noticed that some of their patients have been diagnosed with diabetes soon after contracting the virus.
It has been well proven that having diabetes It may cause worse results For those who get COVID-19.
right Now, international consortium of researchers He is trying to find out if the new coronavirus may also cause diabetes in some people. The project is a joint initiative of King’s College London and Monash University in Australia.
Researchers are trying to determine how diabetes may develop in those who have had COVID-19.
Diabetes epidemic
Satish Thironavukkarasu, a researcher at McMaster University’s Population Health Research Institute, is the only Canadian researcher associated with the consortium.
“The burden of diabetes has certainly been increasing over the past decade,” he said in a video call from India, where he was visiting his family.
“So you really want to understand whether COVID-19 could be playing an important factor driving this diabetes epidemic.”
People with diabetes either cannot produce insulin (commonly known as type 1 diabetes), or cannot properly use the insulin produced by the pancreas (also known as type 2 diabetes).
Insulin regulates the amount of sugar in the blood in order to ensure that the body is working properly. If left untreated, diabetes can cause kidney disease, heart disease, blindness, strokes, and even death.
Long-term studies are needed
Thirunavukkarasu says medical experts first discussed the potential link in a comment in New England Journal of Medicine last year.
They are still trying to determine whether COVID-19 causes type 1 or type 2 diabetes, or a different type entirely, although at this point he says it mostly looks like type 2 diabetes.
Thironavukkarasu says SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, has been shown to attack pancreatic cells, which may explain the link between the two diseases.
It also indicates elevated blood sugar levels It was discovered in some patients during the SARS outbreak in 2003, although in most of those cases the issue resolved on its own after a few months.
“Long-term studies are needed to understand whether diabetes is … temporary or whether it turns into diabetes for an extended period of time,” he said.
undiagnosed diabetes
Amanda Stirzyk, director of health research and policy analysis at Diabetes Canada, says her organization is too search control.
“It will take several years of research to fully understand what is happening here,” she said.
Sterczyk says it’s important to note that many cases of diabetes go undiagnosed because some people don’t get adequate health care and others don’t know which one. Symptoms and warning signs to watch.
Diabetes Canada estimates that there may be as many as 1.5 million people across the country with undiagnosed diabetes.
It’s possible, Sterczyk says, that the sudden onset of diabetes in COVID-19 patients is because these people interact with the health system and are eventually diagnosed.
A1Cs . measurement
Thirunavukkarasu acknowledges that this is possible.
He says a systematic review of studies found that of the nearly 3,000 patients with COVID-19, about 14.4 percent of those admitted to hospital with the virus were diagnosed with the virus for the first time — but that number includes people with pre-COVID diabetes -19 and has not yet been diagnosed.
One way to tell if diabetes was not diagnosed prior to COVID-19 is to look at the patient’s condition. A1C . Test Results, which measures the average blood sugar levels over the past three months.
Thironavukkarasu says that some people who develop diabetes after severe COVID-19 have normal A1C levels but elevated blood sugar levels in the short term, indicating they did not have diabetes before they got sick.
Researchers are currently looking at data that specifically includes A1C levels. Like Sterczyk, he says more research is needed.
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