10 Diabetes Care Tips During the Coronavirus Pandemic

You’ve been keeping up with federal guidance on who’s at higher risk for complications from COVID-19, you know that people with diabetes are among the affected groups. People older than 60, along with those who have respiratory problems, high blood pressure, and heart disease are, too, notes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

That said, if you have diabetes, the disease doesn’t appear to increase your risk of being infected, according to American Diabetes Association (ADA). This is apparently true even though research, including a review published in the Indian Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism, has shown that the immune systems of people with persistent hyperglycemia function less well. With COVID-19 — the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, the new coronavirus — the real problem is that people with diabetes are more vulnerable to complications and getting seriously ill from the virus once they are infected, says the ADA.

It had been clear early on in China, where the first cases of the disease were reported, that people with diabetes had much higher rates of serious complications and death than people without this condition, the organization explains in its online guide to COVID-19. That’s because people who already have diabetes-related health problems are likely to fare worse if infected simply because of those problems. A person with diabetes who is otherwise healthy doesn’t carry the same level of risk.

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