Hepatitis C and diabetes mellitus

Hepatitis C virus infection in diabetes mellitus is more common than in non-diabetic population. Earlier it was thought to be due to more use of needles for insulin injections and frequent blood examination which has been recently antagonised by recent studies. Hepatitis C virus infection has shown to produce insulin resistance (because of liberated cytokines) insulin secretory defect (by viral infection or auto-immune damage). Hepatitis C virus infection also leads to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (a probable component of insulin resistance syndrome) and increased iron increased iron storage in the body. All these factors may explain hepatitic C virus infection as an aetiology for diabetes mellitus. If future researches strongly establish this fact, antiviral or vaccines for hepatitis C virus infection should be thought of for preventing diabetes mellitus.