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Herpes – diabetes: a possible link?
Could a herpes virus be the trigger for a form of “atypical” diabetes? That is the theory put forward by the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research.
One of its research teams investigated a particular form of type 2 diabetes known as ketonuric diabetes which is found particularly among people living in sub-Saharan Africa. It has the unusual feature of being of sudden onset.
Their study involved 187 patients from sub-Saharan Africa: 81 were suffering from ketonuric diabetes and 106 from “classic” type 2 diabetes. With the aid of molecular biology, the researchers were able to look for the presence of antibodies directed against antigens of the type-8 human herpes virus. The choice of the candidate virus was not fortuitous: in this part of the world, between 30% and 60% of adults are believed to carry it.
The prevalence of type-8 infection was shown to be almost 6 times higher among patients suffering from ketonuric diabetes than among those suffering from type 2 diabetes. The researchers believe that these findings suggest that infection with the type-8 human herpes virus is responsible for the appearance of ketonuric diabetes. They point out however, that these are only preliminary results and must now be further investigated on a larger scale.
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