People who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 may be 66% more likely to develop type 1 or type 2 diabetes, a study at Penn State College of Medicine says.
File Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI | License Photo Feb. 13 (UPI) -- People who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 may be 66% more likely to develop Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, a study at Penn State College of Medicine says. The Penn State research team discovered the SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 attaches itself to enzyme receptors on organs such as the kidneys, small intestine and pancreas and can affect insulin levels. Advertisement "We can't definitively conclude that COVID-19 causes diabetes, and more research on whether there is a biological cause to explain this association is needed," said Paddy Ssentongo, an internal medicine resident physician at Penn State Health. "But we know that other viruses like mumps virus, rotavirus and cytomegalovirus are associated with the development of diabetes,…