PUBLISHED : 15 Aug 2023 at 05:00
A doctor from Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Medicine said yesterday people infected with Covid-19 are at greater risk of developing diabetes.
Dr Thira Woratanarat from Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Medicine was commenting on research published on the medRxiv.org website last Wednesday.
The study sampled 15 million people in the United Kingdom, the doctor said via Facebook.
Those infected with Covid-19 have a 24% greater chance on average of developing Type-2 diabetes than those who have never been exposed to the virus.
Those who had severe symptoms and were admitted to the hospital have a greater risk of later having diabetes, three times higher than those who never had the virus.
For those who had mild symptoms when they had Covid-19, the chances of them developing Type-2 diabetes in later life are now about 10% higher, while those who received the Covid-19 vaccine and later had Covid-19 also have a greater chance of developing Type-2 diabetes.
He suggested people have a Type-2 diabetes check during an annual check-up.
Regarding the Covid-19 situation, as of Aug 12, the Department of Disease Control (DDC) had recorded 31,843 new Covid cases this year. The number of fatalities was 775.
More than 144 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administrated in Thailand since the virus outbreak. Of those vaccinated, 57,233,919 received their first dose, 53,730,348 received their second, and 33,987,074 received their third dose.