Doctors fear diabetes ‘tsunami’ in India post pandemic

Nearly one
out of every six people in India suffer from diabetes. India currently has 77
million people suffering from diabetes second to only China which has 116
million people living with the disease. According to medical professionals,
diabetes numbers in India are understated as millions remain undiagnosed.  The
COVID-19 pandemic and the treatment methods being followed has triggered
worries that India may see a worsening of its diabetes record, according to a
report in the BBC.

Diabetes is
a chronic and progressive disease which occurs when the pancreas does not
produce enough insulin or the body is unable to effectively use the insulin it
produces. This causes an increased concentration of glucose, a type of sugar,
in the blood which poses serious health risks and can cause damage to the kidneys,
eyes and heart.

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Diabetes is
also one of those conditions that puts people at increased risk of experiencing
a severe form of COVID-19. The other conditions are obesity, high blood
pressure and heart and lung disease.

Doctors
worry that a large number of patients who have recovered from COVID-19 are at
risk of newly-diagnosed, full-blown diabetes. “The worry is that COVID-19 could
trigger tsunami of diabetes in India after the pandemic is over,” Mumbai-based
diabetologist Dr Rahul Baxi told the BBC.

According
to Dr Baxi, around 8–10% of his patients with no history of diabetes report
higher than normal sugar levels months after recovering from COVID-19. Medical
experts across the world are debating whether COVID-19 itself caused the
diabetes. However, there has been no consensus on it so far.

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One likely reason
for the rise of diabetes cases, according to doctors, is the use of steroids in
the treatment of COVID-19. This could happen if the cytokine storm caused when
the body goes into overdrive to fight off the coronavirus, and the virus itself
injures the cells in the pancreas which make insulin. Mucormycosis or “black
fungus” among a section of COVID-19 patients may also be a reason for increased
sugar levels.