In this study, 150 patients were recruited out of which 63(42%) were male while 87(58%) were female subjects. Patients
with type 1 diabetes were 2(1.3%), those with type 2 were 142(94.7%) while those with GDM were 4(4%). Only one sample
from type 2 was positive by virus isolation and identified to be Echovirus 1 and 21 by microneutralization tests as
described in WHO polio laboratory manual, 2004. It has been demonstrated that enterovirus infections were significantly
more common in recently diagnosed diabetic patients, compared to control subjects. The question if enterovirus could
cause beta cell damage and diabetes mellitus has become more and more relevant when recent studies have provided new
evidence supporting this scenario especially in type 1 diabetes. This is an important issue since it opens the possibility to
develop new, preventive and therapeutic strategies to fight the disease. The purpose of this study is to investigate if
enterovirus can be isolated from the stool samples of diabetic patients as a study.