In a recent study, researchers found out that the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) could be triggering diabetes in typical healthy adults.

Co-author and Monash University professor Paul Zimmet said that children with diabetes are not at risk if provided with care.

The study, which is from an international panel of medical experts, said it has not confirmed the coronavirus is inducing diabetes, but there is evidence that could prove it is.

The study is published in the Lancet Medical Journal.

Medical experts in Italy had reported severe diabetic symptoms in people that have no history of the disease after they had been brought to the hospital with the coronavirus.

Professor Zimmet said:

New cases should actually be tested to make sure they haven’t got diabetes because it’ll make the prognosis worse. They found that these people actually require massive doses of insulin, which suggests that the body is becoming resistant.

He said it was believed that the virus was damaging the pancreas, causing diabetes when a patient’s body failed to produce enough insulin.

Diabetes is a result of your body’s inability to make enough insulin, which controls blood sugar and fat levels.

Professor Zimmet said people with diabetes should be taking care to protect themselves from infection.

He is also urging doctors to test diabetes in patients that are coming with the symptoms of the novel coronavirus.

He added:

It’s elderly people in particular with type two diabetes who are at higher risk of dying. They are people … who have got other things such as heart disease, high blood pressure, and other sorts of co-morbidities.

The study found out that people with diabetes faced a 50 percent higher risk of dying from the coronavirus, with elderly type to diabetes in more danger.

Type one diabetic patients are at less risk than adults that have type 2 diabetes.