Can painkillers for chikungunya raise blood sugar levels?

Question

Hello doctor,

I want to ask for my mother. Her age is 52 years and weight is 119 pounds approx. She suffered from chikungunya in and as chikungunya causes severe pain in joints. So the doctor prescribed painkillers always and when the pain was severe, the doctor also gave injections to decrease pain (one every day). After recovery in one month, I tested her blood sugar level and that came (365) nine months back, after recovering from chikungunya. Does that high level of blood sugar came due to the painkiller that she took and the injections? Followed by that I did her blood sugar test every month sometimes after 15 days then after that up to now, in last more than 1.5 year it never came up. It always came between 90 to 110 in the last 1.5 years or more time. One important point is she did not take any medicine from the date it was diagnosed. Medicine was taken only first day and not after that. She also made changes in her lifestyle as she is not taking sugar much. She is only taking natural sugar in fruits, etc. Some time brown sugar in milk. Does this mean she is not having blood sugar problem and that level came up only due to painkillers and injections she took at the time of chikungunya? Is there any way I can check?

Answer 1

Hi,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

Temporarily any illness can cause elevated blood sugar levels. It is difficult to say what was the cause in her case. If the painkillers included steroids then yes, that added to the cause. But illness itself could be the reason, since it disturbs the immune system and can affect any organ system. To confirm that if she has diabetes or not, in addition to blood sugar monitoring (early morning and two hours after any meal) she will need HbA1C test specifically, that can confirm if she has diabetes or not. It is very easy to do and is available in most centers. If it is greater than 6.0 level despite diet control, she more likely has diabetes and should be treated.