Covid: infected children are at greater risk of suffering from diabetes, warns the US health agency

Children who contract Covid-19 are at greater risk of developing type 1 or 2 diabetes than those who escape the virus, according to the CDC, the US federal health agency in a study published Friday. This new complication linked to the coronavirus is making the health situation a little more confused as hospitalizations of infected children are on the increase in the United States.

The results were published Friday, in a health context marked by a sharp increase in hospitalizations of patients under 18 years old. Children infected with Covid are indeed 2.66 times – or 166% – more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes more than 30 days following infection than those who did not catch the coronavirus, according to a CDC study.

The study, which involved some 2 million children, shows that the links between Covid-19 and diabetes are “probably complex “, but the two diseases can be linked because the coronavirus attacks cells in the pancreas, which produce insulin in the body.

“Covid-19 infection might lead to type 1 or type 2 diabetes through complex and different mechanisms“, the study found, adding that more cases of”pediatric type 1 diabetes“were reported during the pandemic. “These results are consistent with previous research demonstrating an association between Covid-19 and diabetes in adults“the CDC said. The agency noted that”a percentage of these new diabetes cases likely occurred in people with prediabetes, which occurs in one in five adolescents in the United States“.