KIDS are at risk of developing type 2 diabetes after Covid-19, more so than any other common cold bug.

The findings come as the UK faces a rise in Covid cases, with one in 10 in England and Wales caused by the new XEC strain.

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There is no evidence so far the strain is more deadly, but data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) shows Covid hospital admissions are rising in England.

Researchers studied more than 600,000 children in the US aged between 10 and 19 years old who had either had Covid-19 or another respiratory infection in the first three years of the pandemic. 

The risk of a new diagnosis of type 2 diabetes was significantly higher in the Covid-19 group from one month after infection.

They had around a 50 per cent higher chance of diagnosis one to three months after infection, jumping to 58 per cent at six months.

The risk doubled in children classed as overweight or obese, according to the findings published in the journal JAMA Network Open. 

Whether the odds of a new diagnosis persist for longer than six months was not studied by the team at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Ohio.

The researchers said type 2 diabetes was already reported as increasing among children – largely due to the obesity epidemic.

Parents have also anecdotally talked of their suspicions that their children’s brush with Covid let to their type 2 diabetes developing.

Type 2 diabetes is often referred to as a ‘silent killer’ because symptoms – such as going to the toilet more often or feeling tired – can often be assumed as common ailments.

It does not directly kill those who have it but can lead to conditions such as heart disease and stroke, as well as problems with vision, kidneys, and nerve damage.

More often than not, the condition is triggered by poor lifestyle habits like eating too much unhealthy food or not exercising.

Several research teams have shown that adults face an increased risk of diabetes diagnosis after contracting Covid-19.

For example, Canadian scientists said that those who have had Covid are more likely to develop new-onset type 2 diabetes.

However, a study of Brits by King’s College London suggested that after three months, the risk declined back to baseline levels. 

Diabetes diagnoses were increased by 81 per cent in acute Covid-19 and remained elevated by 27 per cent from four to 12 weeks after infection, according to findings published in PLOS Medicine.

The researchers couldn’t say whether the short-term increase in risk is directly because of Covid infection or if there were undiagnosed cases among those who had Covid.

It comes as research last week suggested Covid “doubles risk of heart attack, stroke or dying up to three years later”.

Data from more than 10,000 Brits aged over 50 years revealed the danger is even higher among people with blood types A, B or AB compared to those with type O.

None of the participants were vaccinated at the time of infection because Covid-19 jabs were not yet available.

THE risk of bird flu merging with seasonal flu to create a dangerous mutant strain is now very high, experts have warned.

They fear the new bug could be as lethal as bird flu and as transmissible as regular flu, giving it the potential to cause a pandemic.

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When two viruses infect someone at the same time, they can mix and create a new, possibly more harmful variant, through a process called reassortment.

The risk of bird flu reassorting this winter will be five times higher in the winter, compared with the summer, according to preliminary modelling by analytics firm Airfinity.

Bird flu, specifically the H5N1 strain, has been spreading through cattle herds and poultry this year.

At least 17 people have been infected with H5N1 strain in the US this year – almost all of them poultry or dairy workers who had direct contact with sick animals.

Bird flu has a high mortality rate, but currently spreads ineffectively between humans, making it less of a threat.

But if it were to reassort with a more transmissible flu variant like seasonal flu it could become better at spreading among people, which might cause major outbreaks, experts at the data firm warn.

The likelihood of dairy and poultry workers also being infected with seasonal flu rises in winter, when flu cases rise natually.

Infections always surge in colder months largely due to colder temperatures, indoor crowding, and weakened immune systems. 

On top of this, early data from the US Centre for Disease Control (CDC) suggests the effectiveness of the 2024 flu vaccine to be as low as 35 per cent.

Coupled with a low uptake of the jab, which would leave more people at risk, these factors raise the likelihood of reassortment taking place, said Connor Browne, a biorisk consultant. 

“The combination of a lower-than-expected efficacy for this year’s flu vaccine and the likelihood that uptake of the vaccine could well be lower than in previous years increases the chances of a H5N1 reassortment event occurring through coinfection,” he said on X, formally Twitter.

Reassortment has been behind most, if not all, historical flu pandemics, including the 2009 ‘swine flu‘ pandemic.

This particualr strain, called H1N1, was a combination of avian, swine, and human influenza viruses, which led to a new variant which was able to spread rapidly.

It led to the deaths of an estimated quarter of a million people and infected up to 21 per cent of the global population. 

Bird flu is already on the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) list of diseases with pandemic potenital, along with Ebola, Dengue and the black death.

Dr Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organisation, told a press conference on Thursday that the US needs to focus on “access to testing, getting vaccines to people with high-risk occupational exposure, and answer some of the basic science questions – like how the virus is being transmitted between cows”.

A WOMAN died after she was left “fending for herself” on a hospital trolley in the corridor of an A&E for 12 hours, an inquest has heard.

Tamara Davis, 31, was left coughing up blood and was “abandoned in her most vulnerable moment” when she died of sepsis in December 2022.

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She had been rushed to Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton after complaining of breathing difficulties.

Tamara was subsequently placed in a side room and given oxygen, but was later moved into a corridor when another patient needed the room.

Despite her condition becoming progressively worse, she was left on a trolley in the busy corridor.

At one stage there were 20 patients being treated in the hospital corridor.

Eventually a medical team was called and she was rushed through to intensive care, but she later died.

An inquest today heard she had been failed by a healthcare system stretched to the limit.

In a statement read to the court, her sister Miya said: “‘In the few hours [she was in A&E] she was being made to fend for herself.

“She was abandoned in that corridor at her most vulnerable moments, coughing up blood and suffering from diarrhoea.”

Dr Andrew Leonard, the consultant who treated Tamara in the corridor, said: “Anyone being looked after in a corridor is a concern because it is a failure of normal care processes.”

He said the statements from the family about how they felt Tamara had been failed were “heartbreaking”.

The doctor added: “Unfortunately we live in a world where more corridor care has become increasingly the norm in the last few years and that is a tragedy and not something any doctor or nurse would say is a good idea but is a result of pressures on the system.”

He said he was “unhappy” Tamara had to receive treatment in a corridor, but added that there was “nowhere else to put patients”.

Tamara had been suffering from cold-like symptoms and breathing difficulties before she collapsed at home on the evening of December 10, 2022.

Her partner Raphael Ifil desperately called 999 five times to try and get an emergency ambulance.

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But after failing, he got a friend to drive Tamara the three miles to Royal Sussex County Hospital.

She was admitted at 11.14pm and immediately taken through to a resuscitation cubicle in A&E, where she was given oxygen.

But when her vital signs improved and another patient needed the room at 5.30am, she was wheeled out on the trolley into the corridor.

Tamara then spent the next 12 hours on the trolley with other sick patients all around her, the inquest heard.

She had been diagnosed with severe flu and, although she was given antibiotics, paracetamol and IV fluids, a second dose of antibiotics she was due to receive was missed by medics.

Her condition continued to deteriorate throughout the day and she began to cough up blood and suffered diarrhoea.

Her sister Miya had to help her to the toilet and because there was none available and she had to change her soiled sheets.

Tamara’s condition continued to worsen throughout the day and she was eventually taken into back into a resuscitation room.

She was then transferred to an intensive care bed, where she was placed on a ventilator.

Alice Edmondson, a senior nurse on duty at the time, said: “We’d never move anyone to a corridor out of choice. Nobody should be nursed in a corridor.

“I really want the family to know that I as a senior nurse feel upset every day that people are in the corridor when they shouldn’t be.”

Tamara’s condition deteriorated in intensive care and she died of sepsis and multiple organ failure on December 13.

Her heartbroken family have previously said Tamara was “failed” by the hospital and died after ‘disgusting’ treatment.

They say Tamara had been left without “dignity” and said the care she received was “dreadful”.

Previously Dr Andy Heeps, Chief Operating Officer at University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, said: “I cannot publicly discuss Tamara’s care, but in general terms it is undoubtedly the case that our staff sometimes have to work under significant pressure, in difficult circumstances, but they will always do their very best to give care, compassion and dignity to their patients.”

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