A new study shows that children who have suffered from an enterovirus infection (EV) in the past are 48 percent more likely to develop type 1 diabetes compared to children who have never had the medical condition.

Type 1 diabetes occurs when the body does not produce insulin, a hormone that is needed to convert sugar into energy. About three million Americans may have type 1 diabetes, with as many as 80 people being diagnosed with the disease each day in the US.

A team led by Dr. Tsai Chung-Li of China Medical University in Taiwan investigated the association between EV and type 1 diabetes by using population-based information from Taiwan’s national health insurance system. The researchers looked at the incidence of type 1 diabetes in children up to the age of 18 years with or without an EV diagnosis from 2000 to 2008.

The overall prevalence of type 1 diabetes was higher in children who had been infected with EV compared to those in the non-infected group. Further, children over the age of 10 years who had previously had an EV infection were more than twice as likely to develop type 1 diabetes compared to younger children in the infected group.

The authors of the study point out that there may also be a genetic factor at play in the high rates of type 1 diabetes rates. For instance, Finland and Sweden have the highest incidence of type 1 diabetes across the globe, but have a low rate of enterovirus infection. Conversely, regions such as Africa, Asia, and South America have a low but increasing incidence of type 1 diabetes, yet a high incident rate of enterovirus infection.

The findings of the study are published in Diabetologia, the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes.