key: cord-0811775-5uhshw9i
authors: Gangopadhyay, Kalyan Kumar
title: “Does having diabetes increase chances of contracting COVID-19 infection?”
date: 2020-06-01
journal: Diabetes Metab Syndr
DOI: 10.1016/j.dsx.2020.05.048
sha: 589228c7724afbcb94da6048649f4afc735ae912
doc_id: 811775
cord_uid: 5uhshw9i

nan

I read with interest the article by Marhl et al highlighting the pathophysiological pathways linking diabetes mellitus (DM) and Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) [1] . A recent meta-analysis also highlighted the increase in association between presence of DM and severity of COVID-19 disease [2] . However this begets the questions often asked by the patients and media alike -does having DM increase chances of contracting COVID-19?

To answer the question it is important to know the prevalence of DM amongst the same age group as that affected by COVID-19. However most of the published literature report the prevalence of DM amongst severe COVID-19 cases and amongst those who died with the disease but lesser number of studies report the DM prevalence in the entire COVID-19 population. Table 1 highlights some of the representative studies reporting DM prevalence in the entire COVID-19 population across various age groups in the various continents. It can be appreciated that the prevalence of DM in the total COVID-19 population is similar to the DM prevalence in the general population in similar age group.

Hence although DM is associated with a two fold increase in severity and mortality with COVID-19 [2] , based on current evidence, the susceptibility of people with DM to COVID-19 infection does not necessarily appear to be increased as compared to the patients without diabetes. 

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