There’s been growing concern on how COVID-19 could have significantly increased the chance of kids developing type 1 diabetes.
Based on latest research that analyzed electronic health records of over 1 million patients aged 18 and below, children infected with SARS-CoV-2 showed the next risk for type 1 diabetes.
“Incidence of new-onset type 1 diabetes increased in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, and this increase has been related to SARS-CoV-2 infection,” the researchers wrote within the study published in JAMA Network Open.
Nevertheless, the team admitted that data for type 1 and a couple of diabetes incidence in pediatric COVID-19 patients weren’t separated, so it was not clear if SARS-CoV-2 infection indeed caused the increased risk in kids.
The cohort study simply assessed whether there had been a rise in latest diagnoses of type 1 diabetes amongst pediatric patients within the six months after their COVID infection.
The findings showed a 72% increase in latest diagnoses of type 1 diabetes in COVID-19 patients 18 years old and below inside six months after infection.
“Type 1 diabetes is taken into account an autoimmune disease,” corresponding creator Pamela Davis was quoted by SciTechDaily as saying. “It occurs mostly since the body’s immune defenses attack the cells that produce insulin, thereby stopping insulin production and causing the disease.”
The Arline H. and Curtis F. Garvin Research Professor on the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine continued, “COVID has been suggested to extend autoimmune responses, and our present finding reinforces that suggestion.”
In keeping with Davis, their study suggests that families with a high risk of type 1 diabetes of their children must be looking out for possible symptoms after battling a COVID infection.
One other corresponding creator, Rong Xu, said further research is required at this point to establish the right way to take care of the increased risk and the right way to treat COVID-associated type 1 diabetes in kids.
“We’re also investigating possible changes in the event of type 2 diabetes in children following SARS-CoV-2 infection,” Xu added.
While type 1 diabetes is most typical in children, type 2 diabetes is often called “adult-onset diabetes” because it develops over time and is present in older patients who’ve change into proof against the consequences of insulin.