India: Diabetes scourge looms large in Kerala amid Covid

Doctors and health experts are worried about an even more frightful prospect on the diabetes front amid Kerala’s struggle to tackle Covid-19, which continues to increase rapidly as about 12,000 new cases are being reported daily for over a month.

Kochi, the commercial hub, has been dubbed the ‘diabetes capital of India’ and even Thiruvananthapuram, the state capital, has a growing number of diabetics.

While the national average for diabetes is eight per cent, in Kerala it is 20 and 16 per cent in Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram, respectively.

In comparison, the corresponding figures are much lower in other major Indian cities: nine per cent in Mumbai, 10 per cent in New Delhi and 12 per cent each in Bangalore and Kolkata.

Dr Jothydev Kesavadev, a prominent research diabetologist, vice-president, Kerala for the All India Association for Advancing Research in Obesity, and chairman and managing director, Jothydev Diabetes Research Centre, told Khaleej Times in an interview that a major consequence of Covid-19 in the state is the likelihood of a massive increase in the number of people with diabetes and requiring lifelong treatment.

“My main concern is the spurt in the number of diabetes cases in Kerala, especially of patients recovering from Covid-19,” said Dr Kesavadev.

“We realised from the start of the Covid crisis in February-March 2020 that it affects beta cells in pancreas, which produce insulin. The stress caused by drugs used for Covid-19 patients has resulted in a sudden surge in the state of the number of patients with diabetes,” he said.

India had 76 million diabetics, but the Covid-19 crisis has seen this rise to 90 million, he said.

“It was estimated that in the normal course, the figure would have reached 100 million in about a decade, but I’m afraid it would have already crossed that figure by now,” he said.

While many of the Covid-19 patients get cured, up to 30 per cent of them will have diabetes as the use of corticosteroids results in a significant rise in glucose levels.

Many also experience mild to severe mucormycosis, a serious fungal infection that has been ravaging Covid-19 patients across India.

Dr Kesavadev warned that patients recovering from Covid-19 will have to proactively go for regular checkups and monitor high glucose levels. Diabetes, chronic kidney diseases, retinopathy and heart problems are ailments that many of these people are prone to, he added.