Confirmed, Covid triggered type 1 diabetes in children and adolescents

A study of more than 38,000 young people has confirmed what researchers had begun to suspect: that the Covid-19 pandemic precipitated an increase in cases of type 1 diabetes in children and adolescents, a relationship that seems increasingly evident.

At first, the researchers thought that the increase was caused by the virus itself, but it is probably not true, therefore, the study, published by Jama Network Open magazine, gathered data from 17 previous studies and found that the incidence of type 1 diabetesIn children and adolescents under 19, approximately 14 % higher for 2020, the first year of the pandemic, than the previous year.

The incidence increased in the second year of the pandemia by 27 % more than in 2019, throwing some data coincide with another great study carried out in more than 1 million children and presented during the annual meeting of the European Association for the study for the studyof Diabetes (EASD) in Stockholm (Sweden), where according to the main author Rayzel Shulman, of the Toronto Sickids Research Institute, (Canada), "a much greater incidence was produced than we expected."

Before the COVID, the incidence of type 1 diabetes in children increased at a constant pace of around 2 % to 4 % per year, however, there have been different studies in which an increase in the incidence of diabetes cases has been documentedType 1 during the pandemic and “many of those cases have been presented with a greater incidence of ketoacidosis [occurs when the body does not have enough insulin to allow blood sugar to enter cells to use it as energy probably due],to the restrictions of the pandemic ».

The incidence of diabetic ketoacidosis, a potentially mortal complication of new appearance type 1 diabetes, increased 26 % between 2019 and 2020, probably because people doubted or could not seek emergency care when the first symptoms appeared.

Other factors that could be influenced are the factors inherent to the pandemic, such as changing lifestyle, changes in patterns of pediatrics infections or in situations or an increase in stress associated with pandemic."But the exact causes that have brought that incidence increase, today, are not clear," this endocrinologist at the Virgen del Rocío University Hospital (Seville) told ABC.

In addition to confirming that the incidence of type 1 diabetes in children increased during the first two years of the pandemic, they also found that the pandemic altered the seasonality of children's type 1 diabetes.The disease usually follows clear seasonal patterns, and more new cases are diagnosed in the winter months than in summer.

Metaanalysis reaffirmed that children diagnosed with type 1 diabetes tended to present more serious forms of the disease during the pandemic that before, although it is not yet clear what the sudden increase in diabetes triggered and for how long the trend could persist, Shulman acknowledges.

As for the underlying causes, Kamrath, sees “quite unlikely” that the SARS-COV-2 is directly damaging the pancreatic cells in children, since when controlling diabetes and reducing the weight, there were many expectations of being associatedalso to an improvement in cardiovascular risk.

If the parallel pandemic of diabetes is not caused by the virus that eliminates pancreatic cells, says Shulman, an opportunity opens for researchers to investigate other factors that could be promoting the increase in child diabetes for decades.

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Type 1 diabetes is autoimmune.It is not that the Covid (external agent) destroys pancreatic islets.We would have to study how the virus affects the immune system.If the infection causes the appearance of antibodies that attack the pancreas.
As always, the article presents incoherence, inaccuracies or weak arguments.What does it mean that in those years children have presented more serious diabetes?Are there grades of gravity in the diabtetes 1?What does the weight to debut in diabetes 1 have to debut?Why do you mention cardiovascular risk in children?
My endocrine explained to me that they have analyzed debut data in recent years (at Puerta de Hierro, Community of Madrid) and have not appreciated that there is an increase in cases.If the debuts with ketoacidosis (my case) increased because primary care is not available.
I do not know if he referred to adults or also pediatric patients and may not be representative in a hospital.
The fact is that, in my opinion, it is a mystery to resolve: is there or no more cases?If there are more cases, how does the COVID act so that new debuts occur?Is it a trend that is maintained once the pandemic is finished?

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This has already gone up several times.Type 1 DB is an autoimmune disease and as such, there is an immunological alteration by which an answer against the PQ pancreas is triggered there is an external agent that causes it.
That agent can be a virus, a bacterium, an important stress situation etc
In my case, that reaction was caused by the CDO paperas virus, I know people who studying oppositions.
In the Covid, it is a viral infection like anyone in terms of the ability to trigger that autoimmune response in people with some predisposition.

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