The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has issued guidelines for the management of Type 1 diabetes on Monday. The guidelines have been issued amid the COVID-19 pandemic as it adversely affects people with the disease.

The ICMR in a statement said, “The guidelines come at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected people with diabetes, exposing them to a high risk for severe illness and mortality.”

The guidelines include a vast umbrella of topics including epidemiology and diagnosis and guidance for differential diagnosis, drugs -insulin and others, monitoring of metabolic control, etc.

The concept and compilation of the guidelines has been done by prominent researchers and doctors including Dr Nikhil Tandon (HOD of Endocrinology & Metabolism, AIIMS, New Delhi), Dr V Mohan (Director, MDRF, Chennai), Dr R S Dhaliwal (Head, Division of Non-Communicable Diseases, ICMR Hqrs) as reported by news agency ANI.

It is for the first time that ICMR has released guidelines for type 1 diabetes as it had been only releasing guidelines for type 2 diabetes till date.

Type 1 diabetes, once known as juvenile diabetes or insulin-dependent diabetes, is a chronic condition in which the pancreas produces little or no insulin by itself.

The most common is type 2 diabetes which affect adults, occurs when the body becomes resistant to insulin or doesn't make enough insulin. In the past three decades the prevalence of this form of diabetes has risen dramatically in countries of all income groups.