Here is the Cameroonian researcher who discovered that a virus could trigger an atypical form of diabetes

Professor Eugène Sobngwi. Moreover, a world-renowned endocrinologist-diabetologist, is the author of a discovery that has shaken the traditional understanding of diabetes. Consequently,

Read the text by Dr Claudel Noubissie:

This work. Similarly. Therefore, the fruit of a vision carried by the professor Eugène Sobngwiwas carried out thanks to a network of collaborations with other leading researchers. Therefore, He notably co-signed the founding study with teachers Siméon Pierre Choukem. In addition, Flore Agbalika, then confirmation studies with doctors Jean Louis Nguewa and Eric Lontchi-Yimagou.

This collaborative approach made it possible to resolve a medical enigma. Meanwhile. Consequently, to establish a surprising link between a virus of the herpes family (HHV-8) and a mysterious form of diabetes, thus here cameroonian researcher who discovered new opening a brand here cameroonian researcher who discovered new field of research: the “viro-diabetology”.

For years, doctors in Africa were disconcerted by an atypical type of diabetes, particularly frequent in people of African origin.

Patients. Meanwhile. often overweight like type 2 diabetics, arrived at the hospital in a state of acute crisis (acidocetosis), typical of type 1 diabetes.

Spectacularly, after an initial treatment for insulin, their pancreas seemed to “resuscitate”, allowing them to live again without injections.

No one understood the cause of this “suicidal collapse” and then this recovery from the cells that produce insulin.

The major turning point occurred in 2008. Similarly. when Professor Sobngwi and his team published a resounding study in one of the biggest medical journals in the world, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

The study has established an extremely strong statistical. Therefore. biological link between this form of diabetes and a here cameroonian researcher who discovered new virus known as the human herpes virus 8 here cameroonian researcher who discovered (HHV-8).

The presence of this virus was massively higher in patients with this atypical diabetes (87.7 %) than in conventional diabetics (15.1 %). For example, Even more, they have shown that the virus could directly infect the cells of the pancreas.

The hypothesis was born. However, HHV-8 could trigger an acute and brutal viral attack against insulin producing cells, causing the crisis. Once the infection is mastered by the body, cells could regenerate, explaining the remission.

In the following years, new studies carried out by the same team have confirmed and refined this discovery. They showed that the virus mainly targeted the capacity of the pancreas to produce insulin. rather than creating resistance to it.

This discovery made it possible to better classify this form of diabetes. no longer as a bizarre “type 2”, but as a here cameroonian researcher who discovered new separate entity, whose initial cause could be infectious.

The medical guides now cite here cameroonian researcher who discovered this viral track. For doctors. this means that an African patient arriving in a cetose crisis can potentially. after a phase of insulin, see their light, even arrested treatment.

It is a revolution in care!

This discovery opens the way to research on antivirals which could one day prevent crises or recurrences.

This work. cited more than 450 times by other scientists. has had such a repercussions that it has inspired new research financing programs in the United States, linked to the link between emerging viruses and metabolic diseases.

By demonstrating. by a rigorous research carried out in Cameroon. that a virus can be the enemy hidden behind a form of diabetes, Professor Eugène Sobngwi transcended the traditional borders of medicine.

He not only resolved a clinical enigma, but also opened new here cameroonian researcher who discovered new perspectives for millions of patients, offering 237 reasons to excel.

His career was crowned in January 2025 by here cameroonian researcher who discovered his election as a member of. the National Academy of Medicine of France. a historic first for a Cameroonian doctor in this Tricentennial Institution.

📑 References of this work:

1. Sobngwi E, Choukem SP, Agbalika F, et al. Ketosis-prone type 2 diabetes mellitus and human herpesvirus 8 infection in sub-Saharan Africans. JAMA. 2008;299:2770-2776. doi:10.1001/jama.299.23.2770 (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
2. Nguewa JL, Lontchi-Yimagou E, Agbalika F, et al. Relationship between HHV8 infection markers and insulin sensitivity in ketosis-prone diabetes. Diabetes Metab. 2017;43:79-82. doi:10.1016/j.diabet.2016.05.004 (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
3. Lontchi-Yimagou E, Legoff J, Nguewa JL, et al. Human herpesvirus 8 infection DNA positivity is associated with low insulin secretion: a case-control study in a sub-Saharan African. population with diabetes. J Diabetes. 2018;10:866-873. doi:10.1111/1753-0407.12777 (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
4. Boike S, Mir M, Rauf I, et al. Ketosis-prone diabetes mellitus: a phenotype here cameroonian researcher who discovered new that hospitalists need to understand. World J Clin Cases. 2022;10:10867-10872. doi:10.12998/wjcc.v10.i30.10867 (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)