Is COVID-19 The Cause Behind Rise in Diabetic Cases

Is COVID-19 the cause behind rise in Diabetic cases

 Soon after COVID-10 frightened the whole world, it was noticed by medical professionals that the number of diabetic patients was increasing. Diabetes is a disease where the body is unable to control the sugar present in the blood. There are two types of diabetes, Type I and Type II. This article will be talking about Type II diabetes which is not genetic and is caused due to the destruction of insulin secreting cells of the pancreas. Type II diabetes can be caused by environmental factors, other illnesses, and destructive immune responses (Hawa et al, 2002). Some evidence suggests that COVID-19 and other diseases can lead humans to have high blood sugar which is also known as temporary diabetes and COVID-19 similar to some illnesses can lead to temporary diabetes in some patients or can cause patients who already have diabetes to have severe COVID-19 symptoms (Abdi et al, 2020). Moreover, some illness also weakens the function of pancreatic cells which contribute in controlling human sugar levels called islets and perhaps COVID-19 can be one of those illnesses as well (Abdi et al, 2020). 

 After seeing a rise in diabetic patients who had COVID-19 medical professionals were led to think that COVID-19 might have an association with the increase in diabetes cases and rise in diabetes risk after getting COVID-19 but they were not sure about this association. Hence, many research studies have been conducting research intending to review and analyze the data on the disease of diabetes and the management of patients with diabetes who develop COVID-19 infection (Singh et al, 2020). In another study, PubMed database and Google Scholar were searched using the key terms “COVID-19”, “SARS-CoV-2”, “diabetes”, “antidiabetic therapy” up to April 2020 and the results of this analysis showed there is an increased incidence and severity of COVID-19 in patients with diabetes and COVID-19 might influence the pathophysiology of diabetes. Blood glucose control is extremely important for human survival whether they have COVID-19 or not and in the coming future new treatment methods might have to be made in order to treat diabetes in patients who have had COVID-19. Another literature review study was implemented within the databases of Scopus, PubMed, Science Direct, and Web of Science and the analysis of these databases assessed diabetes in COVID-19 patients. The results of this study suggested that there were no significant differences in symptoms between patients who suffered from both diabetes and COVID-19 and then those who only had COVID-19 (Abdi et al, 2020). It was also found that the patients who had COVID-19 with diabetes had severe symptoms and the death rate of these patients was higher among all COVID-19 patients (Abdi et al, 2020). 

 Right now, medical professionals all around the world are not sure whether COVID-19 has a direct or an indirect effect on diabetes or are there some other factors that are not fully understood yet causing these rises in diabetic cases in patients who have had COVID-19. Further research and studies need to be conducted in order to find concrete evidence behind the relationship between diabetes and COVID-19.

Austin Mardon is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Alberta, a Lethbridge senator, an alumni of the University of Lethbridge, and is a recipient of the Order of Canada 
aamardon@yahoo.ca

Jannat Irfan is an article writer at the Antarctic Institute of Canada and is a student at the University of Toronto pursing a Honor’s  Bachelors of Science in Biology for Health Sciences 

References
Hawa, M. I., Beyan, H., Buckley, L. R., & Leslie, R. D. (2002). Impact of genetic and non-genetic factors in type 1 diabetes. American Journal of Medical Genetics, 115(1), 8–17. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajmg.10339 
Singh, A. K., Gupta, R., Ghosh, A., & Misra, A. (2020). Diabetes in covid-19: Prevalence, pathophysiology, prognosis and practical considerations. Diabetes & Metabolic Syndrome: Clinical Research & Reviews, 14(4), 303–310. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsx.2020.04.004 
Abdi, A., Jalilian, M., Sarbarzeh, P. A., & Vlaisavljevic, Z. (2020). Diabetes and COVID-19: A systematic review on the current evidences. Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, 166, 108347. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diabres.2020.108347