AHMEDABAD: Anil Mehta, 48, a real estate broker, had never tested positive for blood sugar in his biannual medical checks.
He did not have risk factors like hypertension or even obesity and lived a medicine-free, healthy lifestyle including one hour walk daily.
A severe Covid-19 illness which required hospitalization due to 80% lung involvement however saw him testing positive for uncontrolled sugar levels over 500 mg/dl.
Six months after surviving Covid-19, Mehta is now a diabetic who pops two pills a day to keep his sugar levels in check.
“Covid has given me diabetes as a parting gift,” says Mehta who has struggled hard with diet and exercise to finally get his sugar in check.
Gujarat, the diabetes capital of India, seems poised for a jump in number of diabetics post Covid-19 as experts report a perceptible rise in diabetes either triggered by or detected during Covid-19 infection period.
“A global analysis published in Journal of Diabetes, Obesity & Metabolism last year demonstrated that 14.4% of patients hospitalized with severe Covid-19 developed diabetes.
Nationally, experts are estimating 1 crore diabetics will be added due to Covid pandemic,” says senior endocrinologist Dr Sanjeev Phatak who has personally treated 80 patients who were diagnosed with diabetes after a Covid infection in the pandemic year.
“Covid may attack insulin-producing beta cells of pancreas either resulting in cells to fail or impair their function triggering high blood sugar levels — diabetes.
Steroid use may also trigger diabetes, though it is generally temporary and reversible,” says Dr Phatak.
Experts say pre-existing risk factors like obesity, hypertension, sedentary lifestyle and stress induced by the pandemic may also be trigger-points.
“In many patients with risk factors, Covid fast-tracked manifestation of diabetes.
In many cases, it is possible diabetes was present but undetected,” said diabetologist Dr Bansi Saboo.
Dr Saboo said that a national study including patients in Gujarat is underway to study the role played by Covid-19 infection in precipitating diabetes and if it was a permanent disease or a temporary metabolic alteration which resolved as inflammation resolved or effects of steroids wore off.