The number of children aged under five with type 1 diabetes has risen significantly in recent years, a charity said today, pointing out that the Covid-19 pandemic could be the explanation.

According to a new report by the Child Diabetes Fund, 460 children were receiving treatment for type 1 diabetes in 2022, a 62% increase on 2018 (283 children).

Almost 1/3 of these children need intensive care when they fall ill, the non-governmental organization writes in a press release.

Type 1 diabetes is a chronic autoimmune disease in which the body does not produce insulin, while type 2 diabetes is a disease where the body does not produce enough insulin.

“It is frightening to see that type 1 diabetes is affecting more and more young children. We need to think about how to deal with this, both at the level of research and at the level of (recommended) treatment,” researcher Ake Lernmark said in a report released by the charity.

Viral diseases often precede type 1 diabetes, writes the organization, which points out that this increase in cases in Sweden coincided with the Covid-19 pandemic.

Young children infected with the virus are more vulnerable to developing this type of diabetes if the mother never had Covid before giving birth to the child.

If the mother has been infected before or if she has been vaccinated, the risks of the child developing this disease are lower.

“In some children, Covid-19 probably triggered the development of a first antibody,” Lernmark emphasized in the report.

Even before the pandemic, the number of cases of type 1 diabetes was increasing, and the slow rate of increase seen over decades may be linked to other cold viruses.

The link between diabetes cases and Covid-19 is expected to fade as the population becomes immune.

The organization Child Diabetes Fund (Barndiabetesfonden) is Sweden’s largest funder of type 1 diabetes research, and supports studies aimed at preventing, treating or reducing the incidence of type 1 diabetes, it says.