Nikhil Prasad Fact checked by:Thailand Medical News Team Nov 25, 2025 1 hour, 46 minutes ago
Medical News: A new study from Romanian researchers at Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, the Clinical Hospital of Pneumology and Infectious Diseases of Brasov, the Transylvania University of Brasov and the County Emergency Clinical Hospital of Sibiu reveals that COVID-19 continues to reshape human health long after recovery. Four years after infection, nearly half of the previously healthy adults assessed showed new endocrine problems, most commonly thyroid autoimmunity and type 2 diabetes. These long-term complications highlight that the SARS-CoV-2 virus impacts far more than the lungs, and this
Medical News report warns that its effects stretch on for years.
Hidden Endocrine Damage Lingers Years After COVID-19 Infection
The study followed 96 patients who had been hospitalized with COVID-19 between 2020 and 2021. None had diabetes or thyroid disease before infection. When reassessed in 2024–2025, researchers found surprisingly high rates of new metabolic and autoimmune disorders.
High Rates of New Diabetes After COVID-19
One of the most alarming findings was that 27.1 percent of participants developed new-onset type 2 diabetes four years after infection. The strongest predictor was high blood sugar at the time of hospital admission, even among people who had never been diabetic before. More than one-third of those who experienced stress-induced hyperglycemia during their COVID-19 hospitalization later progressed to diabetes.
Disease severity also played a role. Diabetes affected 40.5 percent of those who had severe COVID-19 and 32 percent of those with moderate disease. Older age and hypertension were additional risk factors. The researchers note that inflammation, immune dysregulation and possible direct viral injury to pancreatic cells may explain why the virus triggers lasting metabolic disturbances.
Thyroid Autoimmunity Strikingly Common
Thyroid damage appeared even more frequently than diabetes. At the four-year follow-up, 41.6 percent of patients showed signs of autoimmune thyroid disease, including elevated anti-TPO or anti-thyroglobulin antibodies or ultrasound findings of thyroiditis.
Unlike diabetes, thyroid autoimmunity did not correlate with disease severity, age or other medical conditions, meaning it occurred across all patient groups. This suggests that COVID-19 may directly disrupt thyroid tissue or provoke long-lasting immune reactions that continue well after the infection clears.
A Significant Long-Term Burden
Overall, 47.9 percent of the recovered patients had at least one major endocrine disorder, and more than 15 percent had both diabetes and thyroid autoimmunity. These findings reveal a hidden layer of post-COVID harm that may silently progress for years. Long term monitoring of glucose levels and thyroid function may be essential for anyone who had been hospitalized with COVID-19. The conclusions of the research emphasize that SARS-CoV-2 leaves behind complex, ongoing damage to multiple hormone-regulating organs and that these effects may continue u
nfolding long after the world has moved on from the pandemic. Understanding and screening for these late complications could prevent thousands of individuals from developing unrecognized long term endocrine disease.
The study findings were published on a preprint server and are currently being peer reviewed.
https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202511.1486
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Medical News.
Read Also:
https://www.thailandmedical.news/articles/coronavirus
https://www.thailandmedical.news/articles/long-covid
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