In Chittagong, about 1.4% of those recovering from Covid-19 have developed diabetes.
The study was conducted for a sample of 734 Covid-19 inpatients across four different hospitals of Chittagong district between April and June.
Findings also said, post-covid reactions are most common in diabetic patients. After recovering from Covid-19, diabetic patients are suffering from multiple diseases and physical complications and 76% of these patients are male.
This study investigated the clinical manifestations, outcomes, and long-term complications of Covid-19 inpatients in the southern part of Bangladesh while emphasizing on individuals having diabetes.
The research was conducted jointly by four institutions: Chittagong University, Chittagong Medical College, Chittagong General Hospital, and Bangladesh Institute of Tropical & Infectious Diseases (BITID), Chittagong, with the support of the Institute of Pharmaceutical Science, School of Cancer and Pharmaceutical Sciences, King’s College London.
The research paper was accepted for publication on October 15 in the research article titled Diabetes & Metabolic Syndrome: Clinical Research & Reviews by the international research publishing house Elsevier.
Lead researchers in this study
The study was led by Farhana Akhter, head of the Department of Diabetes and Hormone Diseases, Chittagong Medical College, and Adnan Mannan, a teacher in the Department of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Chittagong.
Adnan Mannan told Dhaka Tribune, people who are suffering from obesity, high blood pressure, and heart problems are more likely to be diabetic. Here coronavirus is promoting those risk factors, as a result, they are being diagnosed with diabetes after recovery.
“We're not saying they develop diabetes only because of Covid-19, but there is a risk that when people are infected with the virus they develop other physical complications. We review the situation here four weeks after recovery from Covid-19,” he said.
This researcher added, among biochemical parameters, plasma glucose, D-dimer, and Troponin-I levels were significantly elevated amidst the cohort with diabetes.
Here the frequency of patients requiring insulin increased threefold during infection with SARS CoV-2 and 1.4% patients developed new onset of diabetes mellitus. Most of them were aged over 30.
Also, 98% of those who newly developed diabetics had at least one symptom at the time of Covid-19 infection and more than half of them had multiple symptoms.
Infected with Covid-19, 90% diabetics had fever, 60% had cough, and 45% felt pain.
Research said, a number of Covid-19 patients with diabetes have been suffering from complications post-recovery including pain, discomfort, 33% suffered sleeping disturbances and more than 20% had memory loss issues, and 10% suffered from panic attacks.
Before being infected, only 18% of the individuals took insulin shots, which increased very promptly to 63% post Covid-19 diagnosis, findings said.
The study also found that in order to control blood glucose levels, 40% of diabetics who were infected with Covid-19 needed to triple their insulin levels. And one in five people with Covid-19 already have diabetes. And the rate of Covid-19 infection was higher in the age group of 30-50 years.
Farhana Akhter said, in this case, it can be said that these age groups have gone out of the house more, so they were infected more by Covid-19 and had a lot of risk factors. In addition, one out of every five coronavirus patients in Chittagong suffers from diabetes.
She said, diabetes is one of the long-term complications of Covid-19 patients. Stress hormones increase when a diabetic has any infection. As a result, glucose raises in blood and nervous control decreases. Similarly, insulin may not work properly due to the complexity of the infection.
“Some medications used to treat Covid-19 patients may increase the risk of diabetes. So patients with diabetes should be careful.”
According to the World Health Organization, about 9 million people in Bangladesh are currently suffering from diabetes. And the number of diabetics in Chittagong is about 1 million. According to the International Diabetes Federation, Bangladesh ranks eighth in the world of people suffering from diabetes.
