More flu increases diabetes levels

Many young people who started to develop type 1 diabetes recently may have had the development of their condition exacerbated by a bad flu epidemic in Australia. The bad flu season have may have contributed to soaring levels of type 1 diabetes diagnosis.
One Australian expert, Dr. Neville Howard of the Children’s Hospital, Westmead, Sydney, recorded a doubling of type 1 diabetes incidence. Howard commented: “Every year in the winter there’s more children getting diabetes than at any other time of the year. However, this year there’s a mini epidemic occurring.”
Type 1 develops in very early childhood, and occurs when the immune system attacks and destroys insulin producing pancreatic beta cells. Howard’s hospital has reported 17 cases, six of which required intensive care for diabetic ketoacidosis.
The type 1 diabetes epidemic is not isolated to Sydney, and hospitals across Australia have reported an increased incidence in type 1.