Hepatitis C linked to type 2 diabetes

People infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) have an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is a major health problem worldwide. It has become more prevalent as people become more obese and live a more sedentary lifestyle. Risk factors strongly associated with type 2 diabetes include family history, body fat distribution, increasing age and physical inactivity. It has also been suggested that, in addition to these genetic, biologic and demographic factors, HCV infection is associated with type 2 diabetes. This association has been deduced from either a higher prevalence of anti-HCV in patients with type 2 diabetes or a higher prevalence of type 2 diabetes in patients with HCV infection. Researchers from National Yang-Ming University, Taipei studied 4,958 people of the age of 40 years and above without diabetes. Among them 3,486 tested negative and 812 tested positive for HCV. Another 116 people were infected with both hepatitis B virus (HBV) and HCV infection, and 544 tested positive for hepatitis B. A total of 474 people developed diabetes during the seven years of follow-up. After adjusting the data to account for established diabetes risk factors, the incidence of diabetes was 70 per cent higher in persons with HCV infection than in those without HCV infection. People infected with both HBV and HCV-infected and those with anti-HCV alone had nearly the same risk, which indicates that HCV infection increases the risk of diabetes but HBV infection does not. This finding is consistent with past studies showing that HCV infection is highly associated with diabetes. After studying the diabetes risks according to age, the younger group with HCV infection was found to be at greater risk for the disease especially those who are overweight. HCV infection and obesity magnified the risk of diabetes by about three times compared with uninfected people of normal weight. Therefore, screening for and preventing diabetes in people with HCV infection could be started earlier than the suggested age of 45 or older, which is the recommendation for the general population, especially for patients who are heavier or who have other diabetes risk factors.