For some as-yet unknown reason, about 14% of patients who recover from severe cases of COVID-19 have developed diabetes, new studies show, according to the Washington Post.
Many of the patients who develop the condition had no history of diabetes. In some cases, the patients’ blood sugar levels return to normal before they leave the hospital, while others develop “full-blown” diabetes that require long-term maintenance.
COVID-19 has been linked to a wide-range of chronic and acute conditions including blood clots, neurological disorders, and kidney and heart damage, but new studies add both Type 1 or Type 2 (insulin-dependent) diabetes.
Diabetes can sometimes arise in patients who battle severe illness when the pancreas fails to maintain proper function, or from the use of steroids in treatment, which is a common therapy for coronavirus patients.
“There’s a good chance that the mechanism of the diabetes isn’t typical,” Francesco Rubino, a diabetes surgery professor at King’s College London, said. “There could be a hybrid form. It’s concerning.”