Gaurav Jain (name changed upon request) recovered from a mild Covid-19 attack around Divali and began a normal life after a short bout of weakness. Nearly three months later, Jain experienced some unusual symptoms like blurry vision, constant thirst and lethargy.
Jain rushed to the nearby hospital and was given medications along with a warning to completely transform his lifestyle.
According to leading health experts, Jain is not alone as they are witnessing more Covid-recovered patients being diagnosed with diabetes and related complications.
"We are yet to ascertain why this is happening, but since this has now been observed, it is better to get the sugar test done fast," he advised.
In the Covid-19 special session at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) in September last year, Juliana Chan from the Chinese University of Hong Kong said that SARS-CoV-2 may damage pancreatic beta-cells, the only insulin-secreting cells.
Diabetes and Covid-19 are silent epidemics with devastating consequences, if not diagnosed or controlled. Rajesh Khadgawat, professor of endocrinology at AIIMS, said that Covid infection has resulted in the worsening of glycemic control in diabetic patients.
"At the same time, there is new onset of diabetes in people who were not diabetic before Covid infection," Khadgawat told IANS.
In diabetic patients who had Covid infection, worsening of diabetic control was very much shown in many studies and many of them required insulin therapy for control.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 77 million people in India suffer from diabetes.
"The Covid-diabetes story highlights the huge burden of diabetes which affects 460 million people worldwide, mainly coming from developing countries with unprepared healthcare systems," Chan said.
(This story was published from a syndicated feed. Only the headline and picture has been edited by FIT).
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