A warning has been issued to anyone who has had the Omicron strain of coronavirus, after scientists found a link between the virus and type 2 diabetes.
Research has found that people who suffered with Omicron are more likely to develop new-onset type 2 diabetes.
After catching Covid, a study found people were 2.1 per cent more likely to develop type 2 diabetes.
The study’s author, Professor Alan Kwan, cardiovascular physician in the Smidt Heart Institute said: “Our results verify that the risk of developing type 2 diabetes after a Covid-19 infection was not just an early observation but, in fact, a real risk that has, unfortunately, persisted through the Omicron era.
"Although further studies are needed to validate this hypothesis, we remain steadfast in our belief that Covid-19 vaccination remains an important tool in protecting against Covid-19 and the still-uncertain risks that people may experience during the post-infection period.”
Susan Cheng, senior author on the study, added: “It could be that instead of being diagnosed with diabetes by age 65, a person with pre-existing risk for diabetes might—after a Covid-19 infection—be more likely to develop diabetes by age 45 or 55."
The research comes a year after similar studies in Germany revealed similar results.
Researchers from Germany associated the two ailments in a paper which explored people’s risk of being diagnosed with type 2 after they have had Covid.
The study, published in the journal Diabetologia, examined data from more than 1,000 GP surgeries in Germany caring for a population of almost nine million patients.
Between March 2020 and January 2021 there were 35,865 people with a documented case of Covid-19.
Compared with people who had other upper respiratory tract infections, those who had Covid had a 28% increased risk of being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
Lead author Professor Wolfgang Rathmann, from the German Diabetes Centre at Heinrich Heine University in Dusseldorf, said: “Since the Covid-19 patients were only followed for about three months, further follow-up is needed to understand whether type 2 diabetes after mild Covid-19 is just temporary and can be reversed after they have fully recovered, or whether it leads to a chronic condition.”
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