Is there a virus involved in the development of type 1 diabetes? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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A very common type of virus called an enterovirus has been implicated in the development of type 1 diabetes, according to a new study. Rita Kalyani, a diabetes expert at Johns Hopkins, says the data is gathered from a large number of other studies and analyzed together.

Kalyani: This was a study that looked at the onset of type 1 diabetes in those who had exposure to enterovirus infection. What they found is that based on a meta-analysis, those with type 1 diabetes were nearly eight times more likely to have had an enterovirus infection than those with normal pancreatic function. And when they looked at a subgroup of people who were diagnosed with enterovirus in the past month, they found 16 fold higher odds of recent onset type 1 diabetes.  :27

Kalyani notes that Covid-19 infection has also been associated with new onset  diabetes in people who’ve been infected, so the role of viruses in the condition is beginning to be discerned. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.